A simple model of a growing tumour

Abstract

This paper presents the CellCycler, a model of a growing tumour which aims to simulate and predict the effect of treatment on xenograft studies or in the clinic. The model, which is freely available as a web application, uses ordinary differential equations (ODEs) to simulate cells as they pass through the phases of the cell cycle. However the guiding philosophy of the model is that it should only use parameters that can be observed or reasonably well approximated. There is no representation of the complex internal dynamics of each cell; instead the level of analysis is limited to cell state observables such as cell phase, apoptosis, and damage. We show that this approach, while limited in many respects, still naturally accounts for a heteregenous cell population with varying doubling time, and closely captures the dynamics of a growing tumour as it is exposed to treatment. The program is demonstrated using three case studies.

Keywords

• Cancer
• Pharmacology
• Mathematical modeling
• Drug combinations
• Tumour dynamics