Kinetic model for designing a cancer therapy

Siddhartha Jain

doi:10.1186/1475-2867-2-13

Abstract

A kinetic model has been developed to study cancer growth. Cancer growth has been considered as interaction between various independent but interacting compartments. The model considers cell growth and metastasis resulting in the formation of new tumor masses. Using certain representative parameter values, cell growth has been modeled in the absence and the presence of various cancer therapies. Based on this analysis, the critical parameters involved in cancer development have been identified. This model may thus be useful in studying and designing a cancer therapy using the data obtained from specific in vitro experiments.

Highlights

Cancer has been a major area of research for several years and information is available about how tumor cells evade the immune system of the body, and how they effectively get immortal
Recent studies have shown that cancer cells in case of several cancer types show high Epidermal Growth Factor (EGF) receptor expression on their surface and this is responsible for metastasis as well as self-induced proliferation
Summary Cancer growth has been modeled as the growth as an existing tumor and metastasis resulting in interaction between the existing tumor and plasma viewed as two independent but interacting compartments

Summary

Introduction

Cancer has been a major area of research for several years and information is available about how tumor cells evade the immune system of the body, and how they effectively get immortal. In the experiments that have been previously carried out [11,12], a primary tumor was developed, which has been assumed to have a cell concentration of 3 ́ 106 cells/ ml based on in vitro studies [12] as well as the number of cells implanted in the mouse model [11].

Results

Conclusion