CFD analysis of drug uptake and elimination through vascularized cancerous tissue

Abstract

Today, one of the biggest challenges for the physicians and scientists is optimizing the drug transport to the solid tumors. Predicting the behavior of the formation of the vasculature in tumor and normal tissues is the hallmark for the drug delivery to the cancerous cells. In this study, we assume a geometry with microvessels in tumor and its surrounding tissue. We employed Darcy’s law and starling’s law to obtain the steady-state interstitial fluid pressure and velocity. Then, these values are used for the transient drug transport equation. Our aim is to investigate the drug transport in a vascularized medium by considering the plasma concentration as a variable. Our results show that the high interstitial fluid pressure and heterogeneity of tumor’s vasculature are the main barriers to drug penetration and cell killing. In this study, we used a denser network of microvasculature in both tumor and normal tissues. Different doses and time periods for the drug administration are also investigated under the tri-exponential plasma concentration. Interstitial drug concentration is highly depended on the pressure gradient. The convection term is negligible in comparing with diffusion owing to the low interstitial fluid velocity. Two methods of drug injection are compared that both suffered from the low convection rate through the cancerous tissue. The elimination rate of the drug is shown based on the different amount of dosages.