Hot spot formation in tumor vasculature during tumor growth in an arterio-venous-network environment

Hot spots in tumors are regions of high vascular density in the center of the tumor and their analysis is an important diagnostic tool in cancer treatment. We present a model for vascular remodeling in tumors predicting that the formation of hot spots correlates with local inhomogeneities of the original arterio-venous vasculature of the healthy tissue. Probable locations for hot spots in the late stages of the tumor are locations of increased blood pressure gradients. The developing tumor vasculature is non-hierarchical but still complex displaying algebraically decaying density distributions.