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Updated: Jun 13, 2026

Modeling Breast Cancer in Human Breast Tissue using a Microphysiological System
Published on: April 23, 2021
Modeling biopotential signals and current densities of multiple breast cancerous cells
Ahmed M Hassan1, Magda El-Shenawee
1Department of Electrical Engineering, Universityof Arkansas, Fayetteville, AR 72701, USA. amhassan@uark.edu
Abstract:
This study presents a model to simulate the electrophysiological activities of multiple Michigan Cancer Foundation-7 (MCF-7) cells, the most studied breast cancer cell line. The intercellular spacing of MCF-7 cells is estimated using the effective diffusion coefficient. Nonuniform finite-difference discretization is implemented to accommodate for the contrast in size between the intercellular spacing and the cell dimension. The model computes the amplitude and the spatiotemporal patterns of biopotentials and electric current densities at different cell division stages. The results show that the biopotentials increase proportionally to the number of cells, especially when all cells are in the hyperpolarization stage. Also, the results show significant electric current density in the intercellular gap between the cells.

