Math Biology Seminar: Amanda Swan

   
Current treatment of glioblastoma brain tumors offers lots of room for improvement, with the current expected survival being about a year with treatment. A model which describes the distribution of cancer cells within the brain tissue would offer potential for improved treatment regions, and subsequently improved survival and quality of life. I will present a model which makes use of brain architecture to predict the patterns of invasion. This is done by assuming that the cancer cells migrate preferentially along the white matter tracts of the brain, and adjusting the diffusion coefficient both spatially and directionally. We refer to this as anisotropic diffusion. We make use of Diffusion Tensor Imaging (DTI) to measure the diffusion tensors at each location within the brain and show simulations using real patient data.