Scientific Publications

Despite considerable clinical benefits, current anticancer immunotherapies only provide durable responses in a minority of patients. The challenge is to identify key biological parameters preventing immune escape and maintaining an equilibrium state characterized by a stable subclinical tumor mass controlled by immune cells. Based on a space and size structured partial differential equation model, we developed numerical methods to predict the shape of the equilibrium without running simulations of the initial-boundary value problem. Global sensitivity analysis methods reveal that the elimination rate of tumor cells by immune cells far exceeds the influence of the other parameters on the size of the tumor at equilibrium. Combining parameters that sustain and strengthen the antitumor immune response proves more efficient at maintaining the tumor in a long-lasting equilibrium state. This is consistent with the results of the latest clinical trials. Applied to the biological parameters that define each type of cancer, such numerical investigations can provide hints for the design and optimization of cancer treatments.