Modelling the Growth of Human Cancer

Modern imaging techniques have allowed us to describe human cancer in three dimensions, but we are still a long way from being able to provide a dynamic description of the growth and response to anti-cancer treatment of human cancer tissue. A number of features of cancer growth suggest that mathematical modelling may allow new insights into this problem. The proliferation of individual cancer cells is not exponential but reflects a balance between cell division and cell death. Moreover the transitions between various growth phases of cancer cells, as well as the transitions to cell death, exhibit some of the characteristics of stochastic behaviour. This talk will describe the results of dynamic studies of growing cancer cells, both before and after treatment with cytotoxic anticancer drugs, and the challenges that these results pose for mathematical modelling of human cancer.