Global dynamics of a model of joint hormone treatment with dendritic cell vaccine for prostate cancer

Abstract

Advanced prostate cancer is often treated by androgen deprivation therapy, which is initially effective but gives rise to fatal treatment-resistant cancer. Intermittent androgen deprivation therapy improves the quality of life of patients and may delay resistance towards treatment. Immunotherapy alters the bodies immune system to help fight cancer and has proven effective in certain types of cancer. We propose a model incorporating androgen deprivation therapy (intermittent and continual) in conjunction with dendritic cell vaccine immunotherapy. Simulations are run to determine the sensitivity of cancer growth to dendritic cell vaccine therapy administration schedule. We consider the limiting case where dendritic cells are administered continuously and perform analysis on the full model and the limiting cases of the model to determine necessary conditions for global stability of cancer eradication.