A Mathematical Model of Gene Therapy for the Treatment of Cancer
Cancer is a major cause of death worldwide, resulting from the uncontrolled growth of abnormal cells in the body. Cells are the body’s building blocks, and cancer starts from normal cells. Normal cells divide to grow in order to maintain cell population e
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1 Introduction Cancer is a major cause of death worldwide, resulting from the uncontrolled growth of abnormal cells in the body. Cells are the body’s building blocks, and cancer starts from normal cells. Normal cells divide to grow in order to maintain cell population equilibrium, balancing cell death. Cancer occurs when unbounded growth of cells in the body happens fast. It can also occur when cells lose their ability to die. There are many different kinds of cancers, which can develop in almost any organ or tissue, such as lung, colon, breast, skin, bones, or nerve tissue. There are many known causes of cancers that have been documented to date including exposure to chemicals, drinking excess alcohol, excessive sunlight exposure, and genetic differences, to name a few [38]. However, the cause of many cancers still remains unknown. The most common cause of cancer-related death is lung cancer. Some cancers are more common in certain parts of the world. For example, in Japan, there are many cases of stomach cancer, but in the USA, this type of cancer is pretty rare [49]. Differences in diet may play a role. Another hypothesis is that these different populations could have different genetic backgrounds predisposing them to cancer. Some cancers also prey on individuals who are either missing or have altered genes as compared to the mainstream population. Unfortunately, treatment
A. Tsygvintsev () UMPA, ENS de Lyon, 46, all´ee d’Italie, 69364 Lyon Cedex 07, France e-mail: [email protected] S. Marino • D.E. Kirschner Department of Microbiology and Immunology, University of Michigan Medical School, 6730 Med. Sci. Bldg. II, Ann Arbor, MI 48109-0620, USA e-mail: [email protected]; [email protected] U. Ledzewicz et al., Mathematical Methods and Models in Biomedicine, Lecture Notes on Mathematical Modelling in the Life Sciences, DOI 10.1007/978-1-4614-4178-6 13, © Springer Science+Business Media New York 2013
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Fig. 1 Gene therapy and immunotherapy treatments. As denoted by the numbers in the figure: (1) Replace missing or mutated genes with healthy genes. (2) Insert genes into tumors that act like suicide bombs once they are turned on by drugs (3) Insert genes that make tumors more susceptible to treatments such as chemotherapy and radiotherapy. (4) Augment the immune response to cancers by enhancing the ability of immune cells, such as T cells and dendritic cells, to fight cancer cells
of cancer is still in its infancy, although there are some successes when the cancer is detected early enough. To begin to address these important issues, in this work we will focus solely on genetic issues related to cancer so that we can explore a new treatment area known as gene therapy as a viable approach to treatment of cancer. Genes are located on chromosomes inside all of our cells and are made of DNA. Humans have approximately 35,000 genes. Gene therapy is an experimental treatment currently being tested in clinical trials that involves introducing additional genetic material (eithe
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