Particle model of tumor growth and its parallel implementation

Abstract

We present a concept of a parallel implementation of a novel 3-D model of tumor growth. The model is based on particle dynamics, which are building blocks of normal, cancerous and vascular tissues. The dynamics of the system is driven also by the processes in microscopic scales (e.g. cell life-cycle), diffusive substances - nutrients and TAF (tumor angiogenic factors) - and blood flow. We show that the cell life-cycle (particle production and annihilation), the existence of elongated particles, the influence of continuum fields and blood flow in capillaries, makes the model very tough for parallelization in comparison to standard MD codes. We present preliminary timings of our parallel implementation and we discuss the perspectives of our approach. © 2010 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg.