Abstract Purpose: To develop a general model of the kinetics of growth of multicellular tumor spheroids by computer simulation and applying this model to the multicellular tumor spheroids of cell line MCF-7 of human breast cancer with the variables obtained of the experimental model. Material and Methods: The computational model was developed with the programming language Fortran. The program consists of a main routine which modifies the state of the cells (proliferative cycle, hypoxia or cell death state) and a set of functions and subroutines that calculate the distances between positions of a cubic lattice, the number of neighbors cells, the distance of each cell to the nutrient source, the probability of dividing each grid position at each instant, the number of cells to proliferate by each layer in each iteration, seeking a empty position where it can place a new cell after division and calculate the probability that cells on the periphery which are not closely associated with the spheroid, they leave it. Results: It is possible computer a simulation successfully of the proliferation kinetics of multicellular spheroids line of breast cancer with a reduced number of parameters. Conclusions: There are extremely complex simulation models that it are difficult to use in the study of the results of cancer treatments for common clinical situations. In this paper we opted for simplicity, by computer simulation of tumor growth with a small number of parameters. Keywords: Computational model, multicellular spheroids, tumor growth

Especialista en Radiofísica hospitalaria. UGC. Radiofísica Hospitalaria. HU San Cecilio. Granada. Línea de investigación. Carcinogénesis y proliferación celular

Universidad de Granada. Departamento de Radiología. Master Avances en Radiología diagnóstica y terapéutica y medicina física, curso 2012-2013

Hospital Universitario S. Cecilio. Unidad de Gestión Clínica Radiofísica Hospitalaria. Granada