Premium
Fractal heterogeneity of peripheral blood flow: Implications for hematogenous metastases
Author(s) -
Kendal Wayne S.
Publication year - 2000
Publication title -
journal of surgical oncology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.201
H-Index - 111
eISSN - 1096-9098
pISSN - 0022-4790
DOI - 10.1002/1096-9098(200006)74:2<116::aid-jso7>3.0.co;2-#
Subject(s) - medicine , blood flow , perfusion , metastasis , lung , pathology , distribution (mathematics) , cancer , peripheral blood , oncology , nuclear medicine , mathematical analysis , mathematics
Background and Objectives To determine how inhomogeneities in blood perfusion might affect the number of metastases that develop within an individual with cancer. Methods Experiments with lung metastases in mice, involving 320 treatment groups and 3165 mice, were reviewed. Inhomogeneities in the distribution of metastases amongst identically treated mice were analyzed by calculating the relative dispersion and clumping index. Results The relative dispersion exhibited fractal self‐similarity on change of scale, and paralleled the effects observed with pulmonary blood flow. Clustering of metastases was also apparent: a minority of mice developed relatively large numbers of metastases; a majority of mice developed few metastases. Conclusions Clustering of lung metastases occurred within groups of identically treated mice, and could be attributed to inhomogeneous blood perfusion. Consequently, the number of metastases in any individual was highly variable and correlated only partly with malignant potential. Inhomogeneities in blood flow favored the development of relatively few metastases, such that solitary or nil metastasis should occur more frequently than expected from chance alone. J. Surg. Oncol. 2000;74:116–121. © 2000 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.