| Abstract: |
| Mathematical models of interactions
between tumor cells, CD4+ T cells, cytokines, and host cells
are proposed to investigate the role of CD4+ on tumor regression.
Our results suggest that host cells along with the mechanism of
production of CD4+ T cells play important roles in driving
tumor dynamics. Cancer cells can be eradicated if the tumor has a
small growth rate and is also not competitive. Treatments by
either CD4+, cytokines, or a combination of the two are applied
to study their effectiveness. It is concluded that doses of
treatments along with the tumor size are critical in determining
the fate of the tumor. Tumor cells can be eliminated completely if
doses of treatments by cytokine are large. The treatments are in
general more effective if the tumor size is smaller. Bistability
is observed in all of the models with or without the treatment
strategies indicating that there is a window of opportunity for
clearing off the tumor cells |
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