A two-phenotype model of immune evasion by cancer cells

Peter Bayer*, Joel S. Brown, Katerina Stankova

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journalArticleAcademicpeer-review

Abstract

We propose a model with two types of cancer cells differentiated by their defense mechanisms against the immune system. “selfish” cancer cells develop defense mechanisms that benefit the individual cell, whereas “cooperative” cells deploy countermeasures that increase the chance of survival of every cell. Our phenotypes capture the two main features of the tumor’s efforts to avoid immune destruction, crypticity against immune cells for the selfish cells, and tumor-induced immunosuppression for the cooperative cells. We identify steady states of the system and show that only homogeneous tumors can be stable in both size and composition. We show that under generic parameter values, a tumor of selfish cells is more benign than a tumor of cooperative cells, and that a treatment against cancer crypticity may promote immunosuppression and increase cancer growth.
Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)191-204
Number of pages14
JournalJournal of Theoretical Biology
Volume455
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 14 Oct 2018

Keywords

  • Cancer heterogeneity
  • Cancer ecology and evolution
  • Immunoediting
  • Immunosuppression
  • Immunotherapy
  • MATHEMATICAL-MODEL
  • TUMOR-GROWTH
  • BIOLOGICAL INVASIONS
  • DRUG-RESISTANCE
  • DOWN-REGULATION
  • NECROTIC CORE
  • IMMUNOTHERAPY
  • ANTIGEN
  • TRANSPORTER
  • DYNAMICS

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