Bifurcation Analysis of a Mathematical Model of Tumor Growth in MCF-7 Breast Cancer Cell Line
Breast cancer is the second leading cause of cancer death for women worldwide. In this study, a previously published mathematical model of breast cancer in MCF-7 cell line is considered. The interaction among tumor cells, estradiol, natural killer (NK) cells, cytotoxic T lymphocytes (CTLs) or CD8+ T cells, and white blood cells (WBCs), is described by ordinary differential equations (ODEs). The system exhibits three coexisting stable equilibrium points which resemble the 3 E’s (elimination, equilibrium, and escape) of cancer immunoediting. In this paper, a numerical method based on adaptive grid method is employed for bifurcation analysis of the mathematical model. Bifurcation analysis is performed for some important parameters for which changes in value result in changes in the stability of steady states. The results obtained from the bifurcation analysis may provide useful information about treatment strategy in further studies.