HIP IMO Report: Analyzing Phenotypic Properties of Bladder Cancer Using Ordinary Differential Equation (ODE) Models

Abstract

Bladder cancer is composed of proliferative and immunogenic phenotypes, which ultimately play a significant role in the growth of the tumor. By using ordinary differential equation models, this paper models the impact of high and low immunogenic cell populations on non-muscle invasive bladder cancer when treated with and without the Bacillus Calmette-Guerin vaccine. Furthermore, this paper models the impact that the Bacillus Calmette-Guerin vaccine has on inflammatory cytokines, which inhibit the growth of tumors by stimulating an immune response. We focus primarily on how the immunogenicity phenotype impacts population dynamics in non-muscle invasive bladder cancer.