Antitumor Therapy: Intervening in the Nonlinear Evolution of a Complex System

CARLOS A. CONDAT; MENCHÓN, SILVIA ADRIANA; RAMOS, RA

Montevideo, Uruguay

Conferencia; VI International Conference of Biological Physics; 2007

The macroscopic complexity of cancer emerges from a multiplicity of cooperative and competitive events taking place at the microscopic scale. Cancer growth can be described in terms of the spatio-temporal dynamics of competing populations, whose correct understanding is crucial to the development of a successful anticancer therapy. We will discuss some current macroscopic and mesoscopic approaches to the modeling of tumor growth, indicating some of their advantages and limitations. We will then present some results of our simulational work on cancer subspecies and its application to the modeling of chemotherapy. Finally, we will describe a model for immunotherapy, which considers the effects of spatial heterogeneity, including lymphocyte migration towards the tumor and the blockading of tumor growth by immune cells.