Agent-based modeling of the glioblastoma tumor microenvironment

Effects of the tumor microenvironment on cancer progression and malignancy has recently become a common theme when determining therapeutic efficacy and strategies. In fact, in glioblastoma (GBM), the most malignant brain cancer in adults, tumor microenvironmental components have previously been implicated in tumor progression and malignancy. Thus, in this study, we set out to experimentally and computationally recapitulate the effects of the two most abundant stromal GBM cells, astrocytes and microglia, on tumor cell survival when exposed to a panel of clinically relevant chemotherapeutics. So far in the study, an agent-based model (ABM) functionally represents both GBM stem cells (tumor cells), microglia and astrocytes as discrete “agents” that independently interact with chemotherapeutics, and subsequently live or die, much like the cells in the human body discretely integrate surrounding information to determine behavioral consequences, including apoptosis. Ultimately, an additional component of the aforementioned surrounding information that cells integrate, which currently only includes chemotherapeutics, will also include the influence of interaction with the two other cell types. Subsequently, it can be utilized to evaluate the effectiveness of therapeutic strategies in a more time-effective, cost-effective and patient-specific manner.