Cancer as multifaceted disease

Abstract

Cancer has recently overtaken heart disease as the world's biggest killer. Cancer is initiated by gene mutations that result in local proliferation of abnormal cells and their migration to other parts of the human body, a process called metastasis. The metastasized cancer cells then interfere with the normal functions of the body, eventually leading to death. There are two hundred types of cancer, classified by their point of origin. Most of them share some common features, but they also have their specific character. In this article we review mathematical models of such common features and then proceed to describe models of specific cancer diseases. © 2012 EDP Sciences.