A size and space structured model describing interactions of tumor cells with immune cells reveals cancer persistent equilibrium states in tumorigenesis

JOURNAL OF THEORETICAL BIOLOGY

卷:490

Article

Atsou, Kevin¹  Anjuere, Fabienne²  Braud, Veronique M.²  Goudon, Thierry¹ 

[1] Univ Cote dAzur, LJAD, CNRS, INRIA, Parc Valrose, F-06108 Nice, France

[2] Univ Cote dAzur, Inst Pharmacol Mol & Cellulaire, CNRS, UMR 7275, 660 Route Lucioles, F-06560 Valbonne, France

关键词: Tumor growth;    Immune system;    Equilibrium phase;   

DOI  :  10.1016/j.jtbi.2020.110163

来源: Elsevier

【 摘 要 】

The recent success of immunotherapies for the treatment of cancer has highlighted the importance of the interactions between tumor and immune cells. Mathematical models of tumor growth are needed to faithfully reproduce and predict the spatiotemporal dynamics of tumor growth. We introduce a mathematical model intended to describe by means of a system of partial differential equations the early stages of the interactions between effector immune cells and tumor cells. The model is structured in size and space, and it takes into account the migration of the tumor antigen-specific cytotoxic effector cells towards the tumor micro-environment by a chemotactic mechanism. We investigate on numerical grounds the role of the key parameters of the model such as the division and growth rates of the tumor cells, and the conversion and death rates of the immune cells. Our main findings are two-fold. Firstly, the model exhibits a possible control of the tumor growth by the immune response; nevertheless, the control is not complete in the sense that the asymptotic equilibrium states keep residual tumors and activated immune cells. Secondly, space heterogeneities of the source of immune cells can significantly reduce the efficiency of the control dynamics, making patterns of remission-recurrence appear. (C) 2020 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

【 授权许可】

Free