The drug’s population-wide benefits may be even greater than previously believed.

Cell-to-cell variations contribute to drug resistance with consequent therapy failure in cancer. Experimental techniques have been developed to monitor tumor heterogeneity, but estimates of cell-to-cell variation typically fail to account for the expected spatiotemporal variations during the cell growth process. To fully capture the extent of such dynamic variations, we developed a mechanistic mathematical model supported by in vitro experiments with an ovarian cancer cell line. We introduce the notion of dynamic baseline variation, showing how the emerging spatiotemporal heterogeneity of one cell population can be attributed to differences in local cell density and cell cycle. Manipulation of the geometric arrangement and spatial density of cancer cells revealed that given a fixed global cell density, significant differences in growth, proliferation, and paclitaxel-induced apoptosis rates were observed based solely on cell movement and local conditions. We conclude that any statistical estimate of changes in the level of heterogeneity should be integrated with the dynamics and spatial effects of the baseline system. This approach incorporates experimental and theoretical methods to systematically analyze biological phenomena, and merits consideration as an underlying reference model for cell biology studies that investigate dynamic processes affecting cancer cell behavior.

After a fall on ice, I was about to discover what happens when cancer patients must deal with unrelated physical injuries.

Tom and Alison’s first years of marriage were tested by Tom’s colon cancer diagnosis, but their journey has only strengthened their love and inspired a community of support from those around them.

A new study suggests that exercise may change how the immune system deals with cancer, explaining why people who exercise appear to be much less likely to develop or die from the disease than people who do not.