Dynamics of an Antitumour Model with Pulsed Radioimmunotherapy.

Abstract

In this paper, an antitumour model for characterising radiotherapy and immunotherapy processes at different fixed times is proposed. The global attractiveness of the positive periodic solution for each corresponding subsystem is proved with the integral inequality technique. Then, based on the differentiability of the solutions with respect to the initial values, the eigenvalues of the Jacobian matrix at a fixed point corresponding to the tumour-free periodic solution are determined, resulting in a sufficient condition for local stability. The solutions to the ordinary differential equations are compared, the threshold condition for the global attractiveness of the tumour-free periodic solution is provided in terms of an indicator R0, and the permanence of a system with at least one tumour-present periodic solution is investigated. Furthermore, the effects of the death rate, effector cell injection dosage, therapeutic period, and effector cell activation rate on indicator R0 are determined through numerical simulations, and the results indicate that radioimmunotherapy is more effective than either radiotherapy or immunotherapy alone.