Hemodynamics of Circulating Tumor Clusters

It was estimated that 8 million people die from cancer over the world in each year, and more than 90% of the patients were killed by the metastasis development. In the development of carcinomas, which account for 80 to 90 percent of all the cancer cases, the epithelial cells with genetic mutations grow and form the primary tumor, and then some of the tumor cells can go through the epithelial-mesenchymal transition (EMT) process and invade the surrounding tissues. Some invaded tumor cells reach to the blood vessel and travel through the vessel to become circulating tumor cells (CTCs) in the blood circulation system. Although majority of the CTCs can’t survive, some CTCs invade a new organ by adhering to its blood vessel wall and develop into secondary tumors there. In this project, we develop a multiscale transport and adhesion dynamics model for CTC cluster transport, potential dispersion, and adhesion process under various vascular flow conditions. We also characterize how vascular geometries and CTC cluster properties influence adhesion efficiency.