In-silico dynamic analysis of cytotoxic drug administration to solid tumours: Effect of binding affinity and vessel permeability
Fig 4
Snapshots of tumour growth and angiogenesis over time.
Simulation results visualisation comparison of the control (centre row) versus the treated case for low poresize, rp, and two extreme affinity ratio, kon, values (0.005 s-1 and 5 s-1). From left to right, the snapshots at the second column correspond to day 11, the third column to day 21, the fourth column to day 31, and the last column to day 40. Note for low affinity (bottom three rows) the low drug concentration in the tumour, while for high affinity (top three rows), as expected, the significant concentration of the cytotoxic drug. Notably, drug distribution is very heterogeneous for early-stage injections due to the non-hierarchical structure of the immature tumour vessels, thus, supporting the argument of the the spatio-temporal variability of the vascular tree in mammary tumours. Also, comparing the top right snapshot with the bottom counterpart, the tumour is fairly more regressed for high drug affinity—see also Fig 3C and 3A respectively.