http://www.dwiarda.com/scientific/cancersim.html

Chemically induced skin cancer in mice

Perform a Monte Carlo (MC) simulation of papilloma growth

Yellow cells are dead, red cells are living cells which have been born in the last MC step, blue cells are living cells. The bar chart summarizes this information.

In the top of the applet you can change the parameters of the simulation. See the cancer explode if the death rate is small and the net growth rate large. Experiment with these parameters!

The lower plot summarizes the theoretical predictions thus providing the overall picture.

All rates are in 1/day and all times in days. (The applet is running (unless you clicked in it), but due to the statistical nature of the growth process it sometimes may take a while before one cell will divide into two cells, or die).

This browser does not trust my applets. If your browser could run applets you would see a picture similar to the one below, BUT you could change theparameters and you would see the cancer grow.
Well, you
are out of luck; no JAVA and no pictures

Due to limitations of memory and computer time available to an applet there exist a limit for the minimal number of living cells in a visible tumor. If you need information about a fully functional version of this simulation or versions with time dependent rates, contact me .

For more information concerning the two-stage cancer model and the background of the papilloma growth depicted here, please see the background document.