| Resumen |
Nowadays, immunotherapy has become an important alternative to fight cancer. One way
in which biologists and medics use immunotherapy is by injecting antigen-incubated Dendritic Cells
(DCs) into mice to stimulate an immune response. The DCs optimal quantities and infusion times
for a successful cancer eradication are often unknown to the therapists; usually, these quantities are
obtained by testing various protocols. The article shows a model of five differential equations which
represents some interactions between some cells of the immune system and tumor cells which is
used to test different infusion protocols of Dendritic Cells. This study aims to find operation ranges
to DCs quantities and injection times for which the therapy reduces the tumor significantly. To that
end, an exhaustive search of operative protocols is performed using simulations of a mathematical
model. Furthermore, nonlinear analysis of the model reveals that without the DC therapy tumor cells
cannot stay under non-lethal bounds. Finally, we show that a pulsed periodic therapy can prevent
tumor relapsing when the doses and period times lie within a certain range. |
