Computation of Glucose and O₂ Concentration Distribution in the Intercapillary Region of Intact Tumor Tissue Considering the Decrease in Substrate Consumption in the Unsaturated Region of Cancer Cell Glycolysis and Respiration

Abstract

With the aid of the diffusion field equations and the numerical values of the equation parameters given in the preceding paper [1] we have calculated the microtopography of glucose and O₂ concentration in the intercapillary region of intact tumor tissue, taking into account that substrate consumption decreases in the unsaturated region of cancer cell glycolysis and respiration. The result is shown in Pig. 1 B. The critical supply radii R_{Gk = 0.4 mg%} and R_{O2 = 2.3/1 Torr} for maintained proliferation — compared to former computations [2] — increase by a factor of almost 1.8. Pig. 1 A shows the variation in distance R between capillary centre and cancer cells obtained with tumors in their various stages (model DS-Carcino-sarcoma) and with healthy tissue as measured in [2].