A mathematical model for tumor growth and treatment using virotherapy

Abstract

We present a system of four nonlinear differential equations to model the use of virotherapy as a treatment for cancer. This model describes interactions among infected tumor cells, uninfected tumor cells, effector T-cells, and virions. We establish a necessary and sufficient treatment condition to ensure a globally stable cure state, and we additionally show the existence of a cancer persistence state when this condition is violated. We provide numerical evidence of a Hopf bifurcation under estimated parameter values from the literature, and we conclude with a discussion on the biological implications of our results.