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Application of a mathematical model to a clinical study of the local spread of endometrial cancer
Author(s) -
Blumenson Leslie E.,
Bross Irwin D. J.,
Slack Nelson H.
Publication year - 1971
Publication title -
cancer
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 3.052
H-Index - 304
eISSN - 1097-0142
pISSN - 0008-543X
DOI - 10.1002/1097-0142(197109)28:3<735::aid-cncr2820280332>3.0.co;2-j
Subject(s) - endometrial cancer , medicine , radiation therapy , cancer , uterine cancer , cervical cancer , motility , endometrium , cancer cell , mathematical model , oncology , statistics , biology , mathematics , genetics
A recently developed method for analyzing the spread and treatment of cancer uses analytical techniques which are specifically designed for the particular cancer under study. This method is illustrated (in non‐mathematical terms) for the data from a clinical study of patients with endometrial cancer. The spread of endometrial cancer is quantitated in terms of the underlying cellular movements, and the efficacy of the preoperative radiation treatment is measured as the chance of cell survival. A distinction is made between the “visible” and the “invisible” spread of cancer in an area of tissue in terms of the number of tumor cells located in this area. The mathematical theory adequately fitted the data, and the estimates of cell motility from the model were similar to estimates found from measurements in vitro. From this analysis, it is predicted that if the patient's delay time in seeking medical treatment could be halved then less than 5% of the patients would be expected with deep tumor penetration into the uterine wall (compared to about 2.5% in the present study). Also, it was found that increasing the dosage of radiation therapy beyond 5000 mg hours has a relatively small effect on the probability of tumor cell survival.