The work is quite innovative, being among the first space- and time-dependent nonlinear simulation of avascular tumors and vascularized cancerous lesions. My own group, some of my collaborators’, and other independent groups, are currently using this method and building on it.

It is both a new methodology and synthesis of knowledge, in that it couples previously published methods for avascular tissue, for simulation of vasculature, and for adaptive finite-element, level-set computation, in free-boundary problems.

It takes computer modeling of cancer to the next level by introducing the possibility of describing realistic virtual tumors that can be compared to direct experiments and patient data, in order to better understand tumor biology and response to treatment.

My involvement began at the University of Minnesota, with mathematics Professor John Lowengrub, who was investigating the possibility of numerical simulation of a simple model of tumor growth using boundary integrals, and also pharmacology Professor Sundaram Ramakrishnan, who was studying the biology of human ovarian cancer and developing therapeutic strategies for the selective elimination of tumor cells.

Not currently, but possibly in the future, if we envision future-generation simulators to be used in the clinical environment for prognosis, or in the cancer drug segment of the pharmaceutical industry, to help in the drug discovery process.