Modelling Microtube Driven Invasion of Glioma

Malignant gliomas are highly invasive brain tumors. Recent attention has focused on their capacity for network-driven invasion, whereby mitotic events can be followed by the migration of nuclei along long thin cellular protrusions, termed tumour microtubes (TM). Here I develop a mathematical model that describes this microtube-driven invasion of gliomas. I show that scaling limits lead to well known glioma models as special cases such as go-or-grow models, the PI model of Swanson, and the anisotropic model of Swan. Numerical simulations are used to compare between the models. (Joint work with N. Loy, K.J. Painter, R. Thiessen).