Modelagem matemática do crescimento tumoral mamário

Abstract

Breast cancer a ects millions of women worldwide each year and is considered a problem of world public health. The disease presents a high mortality and incidence rates among cancer types in the female population. In Brazil, this patology is also associated with the highest incidence and mortality rates among cancers in women. The evolutionary behavior of cancer cells are not well elucidated, such as their origin, composition and expansion characteristics. The e ciency of the distinct treatments is related to several factors involving the tumor behavior, and especially with the clinical staging. In this work, the biological and clinical characteristics of breast cancer were described and relevant mathematical models of tumor growth were investigated. Particularly, the empirical models that consider the tumor population with the homogeneous cells; and the latest mechanistic models including cellular heterogeneity characteristics and the hypothesis of cancer stem cells. Furthermore, two alternatives were proposed and computationally implemented in order to simulate the e ects of the drug in the tumor growth. Numerical simulations were achieved using these models and the results discussed. From these simulations, it was possible to understand the limitations of these models compared with the complexity of the tumor growth.