We propose and study a strongly coupled PDE-ODE system with tissue-dependent degenerate diffusion and haptotaxis that can serve as a model prototype for cancer cell invasion through the extracellular matrix. We prove the global existence of weak solutions and illustrate the model behaviour by numerical simulations for a two-dimensional setting.Comment: 25 page

We propose and study a strongly coupled PDE‐ODE‐ODE system modeling cancer cell invasion through a tissue network under the go‐or‐grow hypothesis asserting that cancer cells can either move or proliferate. Hence, our setting features 2 interacting cell populations with their mutual transitions and involves tissue‐dependent degenerate diffusion and haptotaxis for the moving subpopulation. The proliferating cells and the tissue evolution are characterized by way of ODEs for the respective densities. We prove the global existence of weak solutions and illustrate the model behaviour by numerical simulations in a 2‐dimensional setting. The numerical results recover qualitatively the infiltrative patterns observed histologically and moreover allow to establish a qualitative relationship between the structure of the tissue and the expansion of the tumour, thereby paying heed to its heterogeneity.

We provide a review of recent advancements in non-local continuous models for migration, mainly from the perspective of its involvement in embryonal development and cancer invasion. Particular emphasis is placed on spatial non-locality occurring in advection terms, used to characterize a cell’s motility bias according to its interactions with other cellular and acellular components in its vicinity (e.g. cell–cell and cell–tissue adhesions, non-local chemotaxis), but we also briefly address spatially non-local source terms. Following a short introduction and description of applications, we give a systematic classification of available PDE models with respect to the type of featured non-localities and review some of the mathematical challenges arising from such models, with a focus on analytical aspects. This article is part of the theme issue ‘Multi-scale analysis and modelling of collective migration in biological systems’.

In this work we upscale a prototypical kinetic transport equation which models a cell population moving in a fibrous environment with a chemo-or haptotactic signal influencing both the direction and the magnitude of the cell velocity. The presented approach to scaling does not rely on orthogonality and treats parabolic and hyperbolic scalings in a unified manner. It is shown that the steps of the formal limit procedures are mirrored by rigorous operations with finite measures provided that the measure-valued position-direction fiber distribution enjoys some spacial continuity.

We propose and analyze a multiscale model for acid-mediated tumor invasion accounting for stochastic effects on the subcellular level. The setting involves a PDE of reaction-diffusion-taxis type describing the evolution of the tumor cell density, the movement being directed towards pH gradients in the local microenvironment, which is coupled to a PDE-SDE system characterizing the dynamics of extracellular and intracellular proton concentrations, respectively. The global well-posedness of the model is shown and numerical simulations are performed in order to illustrate the solution behavior.2010 Mathematics Subject Classification. Primary: 34F05, 35R60, 92C17; Secondary: 35Q92, 60H10, 92C50.