Journal of Applied Mathematics
Volume 2011 (2011), Article ID 190371, 8 pages
http://dx.doi.org/10.1155/2011/190371
Research Article

Numerical Simulation of Solid Tumor Blood Perfusion and Drug Delivery during the “Vascular Normalization Window” with Antiangiogenic Therapy

Jie Lv,1 Jin-feng Cao,1 Yan Cai,1 Yu Zhou,1 Quan Long,2 Wei Yao,1 and Shi-xiong Xu1

1Department of Mechanics and Engineering Science, Fudan University, Shanghai 200433, China
2Brunel Institute for Bioengineering, Brunel University, Middlesex, Uxbridge UB8 3PH, UK

Received 19 January 2011; Revised 1 March 2011; Accepted 31 March 2011

Academic Editor: Jürgen Geiser

Copyright © 2011 Jie Lv 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

To investigate the influence of vascular normalization on solid tumor blood perfusion and drug delivery, we used the generated blood vessel network for simulations. Considering the hemodynamic parameters changing after antiangiogenic therapies, the results show that the interstitial fluid pressure (IFP) in tumor tissue domain decreases while the pressure gradient increases during the normalization window. The decreased IFP results in more efficient delivery of conventional drugs to the targeted cancer cells. The outcome of therapies will improve if the antiangiogenic therapies and conventional therapies are carefully scheduled.