Game Theory and Cancer : Using Game Theory to Model Host-Tumor Interactions

Abstract

Cancer can be seen as an evolutionary disease, where natural selection works on the cells in an organism to promote traits that are detrimental to the organism. Evolutionary game theory (EGT) is a field using the methods of game theory, which is usually concerned with the behaviour of rational agents, to model adaptive systems. The basis for EGT is that the stable rest points of the adaptive system correspond to stable equilibrium solutions to related games. EGT has been used to model the cellular evolution in cancer with focus on the interactions between different cancer cells, and between cancer cells and normal cells. This thesis is an attempt to model the relationship between the host and the cancer cells using game theory. Simplified systems of differential equations simultaneously describing the cellular evolution within organisms as well as organismal evolution are presented, and a correspondence between stable rest points of these systems and stable equilibrium solutions to a class of extensive games are shown. The game theoretical models are applied to modified versions of cell- cell interaction games from the literature. The results show that it is evolutionarily plausible for multicellular organisms to develop tactical elements in their anti-cancer strategies.