Avoiding healthy cells extinction in a cancer model

作者：Lopez Alvaro G; Sabuco Juan; Seoane Jesus M; Duarte Jorge; Januario Cristina; Sanjuan Miguel A F^*

来源：Journal of Theoretical Biology, 2014, 349: 74-81.

DOI：10.1016/j.jtbi.2014.01.040

• Cancer models
• Partial control
• Chaos
• Tumor growth
• Therapy

We consider a dynamical model of cancer growth including three interacting cell populations of tumor cells, healthy host cells and immune effector cells. For certain parameter choice, the dynamical system displays chaotic motion and by decreasing the response of the immune system to the tumor cells, a boundary crisis leading to transient chaotic dynamics is observed. This means that the system behaves chaotically for a finite amount of time until the unavoidable extinction of the healthy and immune cell populations occurs. Our main goal here is to apply a control method to avoid extinction. For that purpose, we apply the partial control method, which aims to control transient chaotic dynamics in the presence of external disturbances. As a result, we have succeeded to avoid the uncontrolled growth of tumor cells and the extinction of healthy tissue. The possibility of using this method compared to the frequently used therapies is discussed.

• 出版日期2014-5-21