Nonlocal thermal effects on biological tissues and tumors

Abstract

Tumors consist of heterogeneous populations of cells. The cell–cell interactions processes play a critical role in cancer invasion and could be influenced by the mutation of cancerous tumor. This study is devoted to the analysis of the temperature distribution of tumor growth based on nonlocal range effects mainly the tumor-tumor influence incorporated in a kernel. The long-range kernel approach generalizes the Pennes bioheat equation which is the most commonly used formulation of heat transfer in biological systems. It was observed that the temperature is affected by nonlocal effects and by the localization of the neighbouring tumors. The nonlocal kernel approach may imitate what is going on biologically within a tumor where cancer cells reside. This may assist to the nonlocal treatment of cancer invasion in a human body.