Brain tumor growth models

Resumen:
Primary brain tumors, benign and malignant, constitute a great number of very different tumors from the point of view of pathology and neuro-oncology. Astrocytomas are the most frequent ones, with various grades of malignacy, from pilocytic astrocytoma (grade I) to glioblastoma (grade IV), the most malignant brain tumor. The incidence of brain tumors has been increased, and no cure exists for them. The use of mathematics and computer models is useful for hypothesis generation on cancer etiology, evolution and prognosis. In this review we try to analyze some of the different growth models applied from mathematics to the biology of brain tumors, like continuum models, the cellular automaton model and the agent-based model.