Tumorcode : A framework to simulate vascularized tumors.

Area of Science:

• Computational biology
• Biomedical engineering
• Cancer research

Background:

• Tumor growth and vasculature interactions are complex, with current research providing fragmented insights from in vitro, animal, and clinical studies.
• A comprehensive understanding of these processes, particularly at clinically relevant scales, remains elusive.
• Computer simulations offer a non-invasive method to integrate existing knowledge and create a holistic in silico model.

Purpose of the Study:

• To present a novel multi-scale computational simulation software for studying tumor-vasculature interactions.
• To release the software, its detailed implementation, and examples to the research community for further development.
• To provide a technical overview of the simulation workflow and underlying algorithms.

Main Methods:

• Assembly of established biological and computational models into a multi-scale simulation framework.
• Development of software capable of simulating tumor growth and vasculature dynamics at clinically relevant length scales.
• Detailed documentation of algorithms and simulation procedures for user accessibility.

Main Results:

• The developed software integrates multiple models to simulate tumor-vasculature interactions.
• The multi-scale approach allows for the study of processes relevant to clinical applications.
• The code is released to the public domain to encourage community engagement and further research.

Conclusions:

• The presented software provides a valuable, non-invasive tool for advancing the understanding of tumor biology.
• Open-sourcing the code facilitates collaborative research and accelerates the development of in silico cancer models.
• This work contributes to a more integrated view of tumor growth dynamics by combining existing knowledge into a functional simulation platform.