Applied and Interdisciplinary Mathematics Seminar

Jointly with Center for the Study of Complex Systems


University of Michigan

Fall 2004
Friday, 22 October, 4:20-5:10pm, 1084 East Hall

Mathematical models in tumor growth

Avner Friedman
Distinguished Professor of Mathematics and Physical Sciences
Director, Mathematical Biosciences Institute
The Ohio State University


Abstract

Tumor growth has been modeled at the macroscopic level by using established physical laws coupled with biological processes which are described in a phenomenological fashion. Such models consist of a system of PDEs in the tumor region; this region is changing in time, and thus its boundary is a “free boundary.” In this talk, I shall introduce basic material on free boundary problems, and then proceed to describe models of tumor growth. I shall state results on existence theorems, the shape of the free boundary, and on its asymptotic behavior as time goes to infinity.