A mathematical perspective on the paradox that chemotherapy sometimes works backwards

2025/03/10 by Luis A. Fernández, Fernández, Luis A., Isabel Lasheras +3 · 1 voice
Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology · Mathematics · #34A34 #34D05 #37N25 #92C50 #Dynamical Systems (math.DS) #FOS: Biological sciences #FOS: Mathematics #Tissues and Organs (q-bio.TO) #math.DS #q-bio.TO

paper · pdf · doi:10.48550/arxiv.2503.10670

Abstract

Doctors are well aware that sometimes cancer treatments not only fail, but even work backwards, i.e. they make the treated tumor grow. In this work we present a mathematical perspective on this paradox in the case of chemotherapy, by studying a minimally parameterized mathematical model for the system composed of the tumor and the surrounding vasculature. To this end, we will use a system of two well-established nonlinear ordinary differential equations, which incorporates the cytotoxic (via the Norton-Simon hypothesis) and antiangiogenic effects of chemotherapy. Finally, we provide two theoretical ways to avoid these anomalies.

Discussions

• Luis A. Fern\'andez, Isabel Lasheras, Cecilia Pola: A mathematical perspective on the paradox that chemotherapy sometimes works backwards https://arxiv.org/abs/2503.10670 https://arxiv.org/pdf/2503.10 [bsky, 0 points, 1 comments]

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