Studying the kinematics of tumor growth in soft tissues considering the effects of a chemical drug by using a finite element model

Dealing with the diseases regarding cancerous tumors is a serious challenge. Many are suffering from tumors and such hard treatment diseases every year. Therefore, having a computer designed prediction program which is capable of estimating tumor growth kinematics seems essential for therapeutic purposes as a therapy plan assist for the doctors. The present study is supposed to provide a finite element model based on which the kinematics of tumor growth in soft tissues under the effect of a chemical drug can be estimated aided by the software ABAQUS 6.14. The basic assumptions have been considered based on continuum mechanics and therequired relations for drug dose modeling have been derived from curve fitting method carried out on the experimental effects of drug cytokine Interleukin-2 from research articles. A user subroutine of visual Fortran compiler coding was produced and utilized to import thematerial properties of the tumor element into the ABAQUS user-material environment. The 3D element considered for calculations was of the type 8-nodal cubic element (C3D8) and the material utilized for modeling was assumed to be Neo-Hookean hyperelastic of the type intestinal enterocyte tissue. Providing some modeling relations for glucose and drug concentrations as well as estimating the effect of cytokine Interleukine-2 are accounted as the main innovations of the study. The estimation results showed that drug Interleukin-2was unable to completely stop tumor propagation, instead, it was able to noticeably reduce the tumor growth rate within 3 months. Hence it is recommended that drug cytokine Interleukin-2 had better be used as a supplementary treatment.

Keywords:

Continuum Mechanics , Cytokine Interleukin-2 , tumor growth kinematics.