The impact of phenotypic heterogeneity of tumour cells on treatment and relapse dynamics
Fig 1
Arrows indicate growth, switching and death processes of the different subpopulations. Cells grow at rates ri, switch to slower growth rates at rate pS ri or to faster growth rates at rate pF ri. Cancer cell mortality from growth rate-dependent treatment (for example by the uptake of chemotherapeutics) is assumed to be proportional to growth rate and induces a mortality δ ri. Cancer cell mortality from the growth rate-independent treatment, for example immunotherapy, is captured by the death rate m.