Rather than completely eradicating a tumor, there is increasing interest in identifying therapeutic regimens capable of maintaining tumor burden within well-defined boundaries (i.e., so-called stable disease). However, finding such a therapeutic regimen that achieves this goal remains challenging. We are developing a theoretical framework for attacking this problem based on modeling tumor growth dynamics, treatment response, toxicity, and drug modulation as a coupled system of autonomous and non-autonomous ordinary differential equations (ODEs). In particular, our approach includes a rigorous analysis of the system’s stability using nullclines to identify treatment protocols that maintain tumor stability in the sense of the Response Evaluation Criteria in Solid Tumors (RECIST); i.e., finding a treatment protocol such that the tumor size is bounded between 0.7N_0 and 1.2N_0, where N_0 is the initial tumor size.
Modelling treatment-induced tumor stability via nullclines
Lois C. Okereke, Oden Institute, The University of Texas at Austin
Authors: Lois C. Okereke, Ernesto A. B. F. Lima, Anna G. Sorace, Thomas E. Yankeelov
2023 AWM Research Symposium
Multiscale modeling for preclinical and clinical oncology [Organized by Maureiq Ojwang' and Chengyue Wu]