In silico study of stress distribution in a tissue surrounding a cancer growth using Centroidal Voronoi Tessellations

Abstract

Geometric and mechanical factors are essential to cellular processes especially in division. In this study, we utilize a Centroidal Voronoi Tessellation (CVT) model of generating normal and cancerous cells in a single tissue. Cancer cells have disabled feedback mechanism that normal cells use to avoid overcrowding. This results to their tendency to cluster and form denser regions than healthy cells. Cancer cells tend to cluster and form denser regions than healthy cells. It was shown in this study that the mechanical stress generated by cancer cells tend to accumulate near normal cells and has exhibits a power law relationship. This work forms a foundation to incorporate further critical features of cancers and study in silico their dynamical properties within normal tissues.