Chemotherapy in conjoint aging-tumor systems: some simple models for addressing coupled aging-cancer dynamics

BACKGROUND: In this paper we consider two approaches to examining the complex dynamics of conjoint aging-cancer cellular systems undergoing chemotherapeutic intervention. In particular, we focus on the effect of cells growing conjointly in a culture plate as a precursor to considering the larger multi-dimensional models of such systems. Tumor cell growth is considered from both the logistic and the Gompertzian case, while normal cell growth of fibroblasts (WI-38 human diploid fibroblasts) is considered as logistic only. RESULTS: We demonstrate, in a simple approach, how the interdependency of different cell types in a tumor, together with specifications of for treatment, can lead to different evolutionary patterns for normal and tumor cells during a course of therapy. CONCLUSIONS: These results have significance for understanding appropriate pharmacotherapy for elderly patients who are also undergoing chemotherapy.