The term cancer covers a multitude of bodily diseases, broadly categorised by
having cells which do not behave normally. Cancer cells can arise from any type
of cell in the body; cancers can grow in or around any tissue or organ making the
disease highly complex. My research is focused on understanding the specific
mechanisms that occur in the tumour microenvironment via mathematical and
computational modelling. In this talk I shall present a 3D individual-based
force-based model for tumour growth and development in which we simulate
the behaviour of, and spatio-temporal interactions between, cells, extracellular
matrix fibres and blood vessels. Each agent is fully realised, for example, cells
are described as viscoelastic sphere with radius and centre given within the
off-lattice model. Interactions are primarily governed by mechanical forces
between elements. However, as well as he mechanical interactions we also
consider chemical interactions, by coupling the code to a finite element solver
to model the diffusion of oxygen from blood vessels to cells, as well as
intercellular aspects such as cell phenotypes.