Complex Dynamics of a Simple Tumor-Immune Model with Tumor Malignancy

Abstract

One main feature of a malignant tumor is its uncontrolled growth. In this paper, we propose a simple tumor-immune model to study the progressive characteristics of malignant and benign tumors, where the anti-tumor immunity can be described by the Michaelis–Menten function or the mass action law. The model includes only two state variables for the tumor cells and the effector cells representing the immune system. Three quantities with clear biological meanings are given to determine the asymptotic states of the tumor progression. Moreover, differences in asymptotic states between the two anti-tumor immunity descriptions are drawn. Differently from existing simple models, on the one hand, the model exhibits rich dynamical behaviors including super-critical and sub-critical Bogdanov–Takens bifurcations (consisting of Hopf bifurcation, saddle–node bifurcation, and homoclinic bifurcation) and saddle–node bifurcation of nonconstant periodic solutions (leading to the appearance of two periodic orbits) as the parameters vary; on the other hand, the malignant feature, dormancy, and immune escape of the tumor are revealed with numerical simulations. Furthermore, from the perspective of qualitative analysis and numerical simulations, how the obtained results can be applied to the treatment and control of tumors is illustrated.