Section: New Results

Dynamics of concomitant resistance: data, theories and mathematical modeling

Team participant: S. Benzekry Other participants: C. Lamont, L. Hlatky, P. Hahnfeldt (Center of Cancer and Systems Biology, Boston, USA)

In mice bearing two tumors implanted simultaneously, tumor growth was suppressed in one of the two tumors. Three theories of this phenomenon were advanced and assessed against the data. As formalized, the two models of competition for nutrients and indirect angiogenesis-regulated inhibition were not able to explain the growth behavior as well as a third model based on direct systemic inhibition. The superior model offers a depiction of concomitant resistance that provides an improved theoretical basis for tumor growth control that may also find utility in therapeutic planning to avoid post-surgery metastatic acceleration.