Simulation of cell-cycle kinetics based on a multicompartmental model

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Abstract
Biological cells, healthy or malignant, perform in most respects similar activities: (a) They proliferate by growing and maturing and, after reaching a certain level of maturation, they divide into daughter cells. (b) They differentiate by changing irreversibly to new types of cells. (c) They compete by participating in ecological struggles with other cells that share the same ecological niche. Through the principle of com petitive exclusion, slower-dividing cells may be eradicated from a mixture of cells. This paper presents a mathematical model of the above processes and describes a computer simulation which includes the effects of chemotherapy or radiation therapy on a system consisting of healthy and malig nant cells. The simulation develops qualitatively and quantitively the kinetic properties during treat ment of the mixture of the two types of cells in tissues and shows how the favorable protocols for treatment can be found. Such knowledge can, among other things, be used to devise good strategies for the treatment of cancer by radiation or chemotherapy and to increase the efficiency of research in their use. The example described is a simplified one in which only two types of cells are considered, but the simu lation model can be applied to much more complex and realistic situations.

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