Drug delivery to brain tumors

Abstract

We develop a macroscopic model for delivering drug to brain tumors. The model accounts for bulk convective and diffusive transport across the blood-brain barrier and through the interstitial space. Through mathematical analysis and simulations, we assess the effects of changing parameters (within physiological bounds) on drug delivery. We find that there is an optimal treatment for convective drug delivery to the center of the tumor. We interpret this phenomenon in terms of traffic flow. The implications of our analyses on existing chemotherapeutic protocols are discussed.