DRBEM solution of the acid-mediated tumour invasion model with time-dependent carrying capacities

Abstract

It is known that the pH level of the extracellular tumour environment directly effects the progression of the tumour. In this study, the mathematical model for the acid-mediated tumour cell invasion consisting of a system of nonlinear reaction diffusion equations describing the interaction between the density of the tumour cells, normal cells and the concentration of protons produced by the tumour cells is solved numerically using the combined application of dual reciprocity boundary element method (DRBEM) and finite difference method. The space derivatives in the model are discretised by DRBEM using the fundamental solution of Laplace equation considering the time derivative and the nonlinearities as the nonhomogenity. The resulting systems of ordinary differential equations after the application of DRBEM are then discretised using forward difference. Because of the highly nonlinear character of the model, there arises difficulties in solving the model especially for two-dimensions and the boundary-only nature of DRBEM discretisation gives the advantage of having solutions with a lower computational cost. The proposed method is tested with different kinds of carrying capacities which also depend on time. The results of the numerical simulations are compared among each case and seen to confirm the expected behaviour of the model.