Hopf bifurcation, cascade of period-doubling, chaos, and the possibility of cure in a 3D cancer model

Abstract

We study a cancer model given by a three-dimensional system of ordinary differential equations, depending on eight parameters, which describe the interaction among healthy cells, tumour cells, and effector cells of immune system. The model was previously studied in the literature and was shown to have a chaotic attractor. In this paper we study how such a chaotic attractor is formed. More precisely, by varying one of the parameters, we prove that a supercritical Hopf bifurcation occurs, leading to the creation of a stable limit cycle. Then studying the continuation of this limit cycle we numerically found a cascade of period-doubling bifurcations which leads to the formation of the mentioned chaotic attractor. Moreover, analyzing the model dynamics from a biological point of view, we notice the possibility of both the tumour cells and the immune system cells to vanish and only the healthy cells survive, suggesting the possibility of cure, since the interactions with the immune system can eliminate tumour cells.