This is a theoretico-computational work that analyses a simple non-linear cancer model. Researchers used the so-called step homotopy analysis method (SHAM) to find approximate, but accurate, solutions of the nonlinear model. These semi-analitic solutions were then used to investigate the impact of activation of effector immune cells (CD8 T cells) in the dynamics. Researchers have identified chaos at increasing activation rates of these cells. Also, they found that the activation of such immune cells can promote tumor extinction considering demographic stochasticity of tumor cells.

This work has been done in collaboration with researchers at IMIM (Barcelona) and three Portuguese centres: ESTS, ISEL  and Universidade de Lisboa.

Reference Article: Sardanyés J., Rodrigues, C., Januário, C., Martins, N., Gil-Gómez, G., Duarte, J. 2014. Activation of effector immune cells promotes tumor stochastic extinction: A homotopy analysis approach Sardanyés, J. et al. 2014arXiv:1411.7896v1 [nlin.CD] 28 Nov 2014