News
New mathematical model for calculating rate of tumour growth
11 March 2010
The standard method currently used to determine tumour growth
is erroneous. according to scientists at the University of Gothenburg,
Sweden, who have developed a new model.
The principal reason that patients die of cancer is the spread of
cancer cells through the body to form new tumours known as metastases.
These metastases are initially so small that they cannot be detected by
modern diagnostic methods. The healthcare system must therefore, when
treatment begins, rely on mathematical models to calculate the growth of
a tumour.
The standard method for describing tumour growth uses a parameter
known as "doubling time" (DT), which specifies the time it takes for a
tumour to double in volume. Scientists at the University of Gothenburg
have now shown that this widely applied calculation method is erroneous.
Scientist Esmaeil Mehrara and his colleagues at the Department of
Radiation Physics, University of Gothenburg, have developed a new method
that calculates the rate of tumour growth more accurately. The new
method uses a parameter known as the specific growth rate (SGR), which
measures the percentage growth of the tumour per day.
The new method improves the possibility of determining the effects of
various treatment alternatives.
"The standard method used to determine the effect of therapy does not
take the rate of tumour growth into account, while our new model does.
This means that we can measure more accurately even small effects of
treatment", says Esmaeil Mehrara.
IIt is hoped that the new method using SGR will be valuable in
determining whether a treatment is having an effect or not in a
particular patient. This means that the best treatment for a patient can
be found more rapidly than is the case today.
For more details of the research see:
http://hdl.handle.net/2077/21548
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