Seminar in PSA 106 at 3:40p.m.

ABSTRACT:

Many lines of evidence lead to the conclusion that ribosomes, and therefore
phosphorus, are important commodities in cancer cells. A common cytologic
characteristic of cancer cells is a large, active nucleolus; the bigger and more
active the nucleolus, the faster cancer cells proliferate {in vivo}. The
population of cancer cells within a given tumor tends to be highly genetically
and physiologically varied. Our objective here is to integrate these elements,
namely natural selection driven by competition for resources, especially
phosphorus, into a mathematical model consisting of delay differential
equations. The model tracks mass of healthy cells within a host organ, mass
of parenchyma (cancer) cells of various types and the number of blood
vessels within the tumor. Preliminary study of these models shows that
tumor population growth and sizes are more sensitive to total phosphorous
amount and time delay than their growth rates. Potential treatments are
suggested