REDUCED-ORDER MODELING OF SOLUTE TRANSPORT WITHIN PHYSIOLOGICALLY REALISTIC SOLID TUMOR MICROENVIRONMENT

Area of Science:

• Biomedical Engineering
• Computational Biology
• Cancer Research

Background:

• Solid tumors exhibit dense extracellular matrices (ECM) and poor vascularization, hindering transport processes.
• Understanding plasma dynamics within the tumor microenvironment is crucial for effective therapies.

Purpose of the Study:

• To develop an integrated computational framework for simulating intratumoral plasma transport.
• To quantify the impact of glycocalyx-patch electrohydrodynamics (EHD) on plasma perfusion.

Main Methods:

• Coupled three-phase viscous-laminar transient simulations of plasma, red blood cells (RBCs), and white blood cells (WBCs).
• Integrated computational fluid dynamics (CFD) with a calibrated reverse advection-diffusion (RAD) model.
• Incorporated histology-informed ECM properties and explicit EHD at the tumor vessel wall.

Main Results:

• EHD significantly increased plasma intensity at fenestrations (25.34% gain).
• Simulations revealed two-stage plasma perfusion kinetics, starting with an advection-dominated regime.
• The calibrated RAD model accurately reproduced CFD-resolved plasma propagation.

Conclusions:

• The developed framework bridges the gap between traditional Darcy-Starling models and advanced CFD.
• Provides a tractable, mechanism-grounded tool for quantifying plasma progression in solid tumors.
• Offers potential for optimizing drug delivery strategies in cancer treatment.