EVALUATING MICROCRACKS IN ENHANCING NANOFLUID FLOW FROM CAPILLARIES TO THE INTERSTITIAL SPACE IN TUMOR CORE REGIONS – THEORETICAL SIMULATIONS

Abstract

Limited drug delivery outcomes using systemic delivery are attributed to tumor microenvironment. The objective of this study is to investigate the effect of introduction of microcracks in tumors on tumoral IFP reduction to facilitate therapeutic agent delivery to tumors. We developed a theoretical model for fluid transport in a spherical tumor incorporating Starling’s law and Darcy’s law. Results have shown that introduction of 4 microcracks in tumors is effective to lower the maximal IFP in the tumor from 1941 Pa to 1722.1 Pa, by up to 11.3%. Although the reduction of the average IFP in the entire tumor is limited, it is evident that this approach is effective to decrease the average IFP in the tumor core regions with up to 16.8% reduction from the baseline case without microcrack. We conclude that introducing several microcracks in tumors is an effective method to facilitate transcapillary fluid/drug flow to tumor interstitial fluid space.