Project abstract

Tumor evolution is a very complex process, involving many different phenomena, which occur at different scales. From the modelling point of view there are three natural scales of interest: the sub-cellular scale, the cellular scale and the macroscopic scale.

Developing mathematical models, at all the scales mentioned above, requires making use of a wide variety of theoretical tools from a range of disciplines (e.g. continuum mechanics, kinetic theory, stochastic processes, system theory, compartmental models, multiphase flows) and developing different mathematical tools to obtain both qualitative and quantitative results. One of the challenging ploblems from a mathematical point of view is to link results found at the different scales, this being an active area of research with wide applications.

One of the aims of the project is then to collect, to evaluate, to improve, and - as far as possible - to link all the approaches, in order to gain deeper insight into the dynamics of tumour growth and to develop predictive, quantitative mathematical models which can be used by clinicians in the fight against cancer.