Spatial stochastic models of cancer: Fitness, migration, invasion

Cancer progression is driven by genetic and epigenetic events giving rise to heterogeneity of cellphenotypes, and by selection forces that shape the changingcomposition of tumors. The selection forces are dynamic and depend onmany factors. The cells favored by selection are said to be more``fit'...

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Main Author: Natalia L. Komarova
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: AIMS Press 2013-03-01
Series:Mathematical Biosciences and Engineering
Subjects:
Online Access:https://www.aimspress.com/article/doi/10.3934/mbe.2013.10.761
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author Natalia L. Komarova
author_facet Natalia L. Komarova
author_sort Natalia L. Komarova
collection DOAJ
description Cancer progression is driven by genetic and epigenetic events giving rise to heterogeneity of cellphenotypes, and by selection forces that shape the changingcomposition of tumors. The selection forces are dynamic and depend onmany factors. The cells favored by selection are said to be more``fit'' than others. They tend to leave more viable offspring andspread through the population. What cellular characteristics makecertain cells more fit than others? What combinations of the mutantcharacteristics and ``background'' characteristics make the mutantcells win the evolutionary competition? In this review we concentrateon two phenotypic characteristics of cells: their reproductivepotential and their motility. We show that migration has a directpositive impact on the ability of a single mutant cell to invade apre-existing colony. Thus, a decrease in the reproductive potentialcan be compensated by an increase in cell migration. We furtherdemonstrate that the neutral ridges (the set of all types with theinvasion probability equal to that of the host cells) remain invariantunder the increase of system size (for large system sizes), thusmaking the invasion probability a universal characteristic of thecells' selection status. We list very general conditions underwhich the optimal phenotype is just one single strategy (thus leadingto a nearly-homogeneous type invading the colony), or a large set ofstrategies that differ by their reproductive potentials and migrationcharacteristics, but have a nearly-equal fitness. In the latter casethe evolutionary competition will result in a highly heterogeneouspopulation.
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spelling doaj-art-0e27a35638bb4ca4af4a171a740e22f92025-01-24T02:26:12ZengAIMS PressMathematical Biosciences and Engineering1551-00182013-03-0110376177510.3934/mbe.2013.10.761Spatial stochastic models of cancer: Fitness, migration, invasionNatalia L. Komarova0Department of Mathematics, University of California Irvine, Irvine CA 92697Cancer progression is driven by genetic and epigenetic events giving rise to heterogeneity of cellphenotypes, and by selection forces that shape the changingcomposition of tumors. The selection forces are dynamic and depend onmany factors. The cells favored by selection are said to be more``fit'' than others. They tend to leave more viable offspring andspread through the population. What cellular characteristics makecertain cells more fit than others? What combinations of the mutantcharacteristics and ``background'' characteristics make the mutantcells win the evolutionary competition? In this review we concentrateon two phenotypic characteristics of cells: their reproductivepotential and their motility. We show that migration has a directpositive impact on the ability of a single mutant cell to invade apre-existing colony. Thus, a decrease in the reproductive potentialcan be compensated by an increase in cell migration. We furtherdemonstrate that the neutral ridges (the set of all types with theinvasion probability equal to that of the host cells) remain invariantunder the increase of system size (for large system sizes), thusmaking the invasion probability a universal characteristic of thecells' selection status. We list very general conditions underwhich the optimal phenotype is just one single strategy (thus leadingto a nearly-homogeneous type invading the colony), or a large set ofstrategies that differ by their reproductive potentials and migrationcharacteristics, but have a nearly-equal fitness. In the latter casethe evolutionary competition will result in a highly heterogeneouspopulation.https://www.aimspress.com/article/doi/10.3934/mbe.2013.10.761spatial cell dynamicsfitnessagent-based modelinglattice modelscellular automatacell motolity.
spellingShingle Natalia L. Komarova
Spatial stochastic models of cancer: Fitness, migration, invasion
Mathematical Biosciences and Engineering
spatial cell dynamics
fitness
agent-based modeling
lattice models
cellular automata
cell motolity.
title Spatial stochastic models of cancer: Fitness, migration, invasion
title_full Spatial stochastic models of cancer: Fitness, migration, invasion
title_fullStr Spatial stochastic models of cancer: Fitness, migration, invasion
title_full_unstemmed Spatial stochastic models of cancer: Fitness, migration, invasion
title_short Spatial stochastic models of cancer: Fitness, migration, invasion
title_sort spatial stochastic models of cancer fitness migration invasion
topic spatial cell dynamics
fitness
agent-based modeling
lattice models
cellular automata
cell motolity.
url https://www.aimspress.com/article/doi/10.3934/mbe.2013.10.761
work_keys_str_mv AT natalialkomarova spatialstochasticmodelsofcancerfitnessmigrationinvasion