Computational and Mathematical Methods in Medicine
Volume 2011 (2011), Article ID 790721, 10 pages
http://dx.doi.org/10.1155/2011/790721
Research Article
Quantitative Model for Efficient Temporal Targeting of Tumor Cells and Neovasculature
1Department of Applied Mathematics, University of Waterloo, Waterloo, ON, Canada N2L 3G1
2Center for Mathematical Medicine, Fields Institute for Research in Mathematical Sciences, Toronto, ON, Canada M5T 3J1
3Department of Physics, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA 02139, USA
4Department of Applied Physics, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, CA 91125, USA
5Department of Medicine, BWH-HST Center for Biomedical Engineering, Brigham and Women's Hospital, Cambridge, MA 02139, USA
Received 13 July 2010; Accepted 9 January 2011
Academic Editor: Nestor V. Torres
Copyright © 2011 M. Kohandel et al. This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
Abstract
The combination of cytotoxic therapies and antiangiogenic agents is emerging as a most promising strategy in the treatment of malignant tumors. However, the timing and sequencing of these treatments seem to play essential roles in achieving a synergic outcome. Using a mathematical modeling approach that is grounded on available experimental data, we investigate the spatial and temporal targeting of tumor cells and neovasculature with a nanoscale delivery system. Our model suggests that the experimental success of the nanoscale delivery system depends crucially on the trapping of chemotherapeutic agents within the tumor tissue. The numerical results also indicate that substantial further improvements in the efficiency of the nanoscale delivery system can be achieved through an adjustment of the temporal targeting mechanism.