A Single-Cell Approach in Modeling the Dynamics of Tumor Microregions

Interactions between tumor cells and their environment lead to the formation of microregions containing nonhomogeneous subpopulations of cells and steep gradients in oxygen, glucose, and other metabolites. To address the formation of tumor microregions on the level of single cells, I propose a new two-dimensional time-dependent mathematical model taking explicitly into account the individually regulated biomechanical processes of tumor cells and the effect of oxygen consumption on their metabolism. Numerical simulations of the self-organized formation of tumor microregions are presented and the dynamics of such a process is discussed.