Computational simulation of tumour hypoxia as applied to radiation therapy applications

Abstract

It has long been appreciated that hypoxia plays a significant role in tumour resistance to radiotherapy treatment, chemotherapy treatment and also in surgery. For present interests, it is noted that tumour radio-sensitivity increases with the increase of oxygen concentration across tumour regions. A theoretical representation of oxygen distribution in 2D vascular architecture using a reaction diffusion model enables relationships between tissue diffusivity, tissue metabolism, anatomical structure of blood vessels and oxygen gradients to be characterized quantitatively. We present a refinement to the work of Kelly and Brady (2006) and demonstrate the significant effect of the role of the venules supply on the microcirculation process at the intracellular level. With our representation of the two latter forces, the model is being developed to simulate the uptake of various PET reagents, such as 64Cu-ATSM, to demonstrate their potential use in radiation therapy treatment planning as an indicator of tumour hypoxic regions. © 2009 Springer-Verlag.