A patient-specific framework for the mechanical modelling of brain tumours

Dr Chiara Giverso (Politecnico di Torino)

Thursday 27th January, 2022 14:00-15:00 Room 110/Zoom (ID: 995 2226 2796)

Abstract

Brain tumours frequently grow along the fibres of the white matter or along vessels, following the physical structures in the neighbouring healthy tissue. Depending on the amount and orientation of such preferential pathways, brain cancers may appear very different from an individual to another and may infiltrate in different neurological areas.  Furthermore, the tumour growth-induced compression can corrupt brain functions also in the healthy region. It is therefore important to reproduce through mathematical and computational models the patient-specific heterogeneity of brain microstructure and the mechanical behaviour of the brain tissue in order to predict the progression of the pathology and the injured areas. Motivated by these needs, we develop a mathematical multiphase model that explicitly includes brain hyperelasticity and couples solid and fluid stresses with brain tumour growth and healthy tissue reorganization. Our mechanical description allows to evaluate the impact of the growing tumour mass on the surrounding tissue, quantifying the displacements, deformations and stresses induced by its proliferation. At the same time, the knowledge of the mechanical variables may be used to model the stress-induced inhibition on growth, as well as to properly modify the preferential directions of white matter tracts as a consequence of deformations caused by the tumour. Finally, the simulations of our model are implemented in a personalized three-dimensional framework, which allows to incorporate the realistic brain geometry, the patient-specific diffusion and permeability tensors reconstructed from imaging data and to modify them as a consequence of the mechanical deformation due to cancer growth.

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