A mathematical model of viral oncology as a instigator of immuno-oncology

Abstract

We develop and analyse a mathematical model of tumour-immune interaction that explicitly incorporates heterogeneity in tumour cell cycle duration by using a distributed delay differential equation. Our necessary and sufficient conditions for local stability of the cancer free equilibrium completely characterise the importance of tumour-immune interaction in disease progression. Consistent with the immunoediting hypothesis, we show that decreasing tumour-immune interaction leads to tumour expansion. Finally, we show that immune involvement is crucial in determining the long-term response to viral therapy.