Sandesh Athni Hiremath, Christina Surulescu

• In this paper we propose a phenomenological model for the formation of an interstitial gap between the tumor and the stroma. The gap is mainly filled with acid produced by the progressing edge of the tumor front. Our setting extends existing models for acid-induced tumor invasion models to incorporate several features of local invasion like formation of gaps, spikes, buds, islands, and cavities. These behaviors are obtained mainly due to the random dynamics at the intracellular level, the go-or-grow-or-recede dynamics on the population scale, together with the nonlinear coupling between the microscopic (intracellular) and macroscopic (population) levels. The wellposedness of the model is proved using the semigroup technique and 1D and 2D numerical simulations are performed to illustrate model predictions and draw conclusions based on the observed behavior.