A TWO PHASE AGE DEPENDENT AND TWO-MUTATION STOCHASTIC MODEL OF CARCINOGENESIS

A TWO PHASE AGE DEPENDENT AND TWO-MUTATION STOCHASTIC MODEL OF CARCINOGENESIS

G. Venkiteswaran, S. Udayabaskaran, C. T. D. Pravina, S. Sreelakshmi

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Abstract

An age dependent and two-mutation stochastic model of carcinogenesis is formulated and studied. In this model, we introduce a  tness age T; (a positive constant) for each cell to divide into two cells. A normal cell if its age is not greater than T either divides into two normal cells or divides into one normal cell and one intermediate cell or dies. A normal cell if its age is greater than T either divides into one normal cell and one intermediate cell, or divides into two intermediate cells or dies. An intermediate cell if its age is not greater than T divides into two intermediate cells or divides into one intermediate cell and one malignant cell or dies. An intermediate cell if its age is greater than T divides into one intermediate cell and one malignant cell or divides into two malignant cells or dies. It is assumed that, once a malignant cell is produced, it gen- erates a malignant tumor with probability 1. We obtain the mean numbers of normal, intermediate and malignant cells. It is shown that the production of malignant cells in one-mutation model is faster than that in two-mutation model. A numerical illustration is presented to highlight the performance of the model.

Keywords

Carcinogenesis, Fitness age, Malignant cell, Age-dependence, Two-stage mutation.