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Mathematical Models of Cancer Stem Cells

Franziska Michor

From the Computational Biology Center, Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, New York, NY

Corresponding author: Franziska Michor, PhD, Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, 417 East 68th St, New York, NY 10065; e-mail: michorf{at}mskcc.org

Human cancers are thought to be sustained in their growth by a pathologic counterpart of normal adult stem cells: cancer stem cells. This concept was first developed in human myeloid leukemias and is today being extended to solid tumors such as breast and brain cancers. A quantitative understanding of cancer stem cells requires a mathematical framework to describe the dynamics of cancer initiation and progression, the response to treatment, and the evolution of resistance. In this review, I use chronic myeloid leukemia as an example to discuss how mathematical and computational techniques have been used to gain insights into the biology of cancer stem cells.

Author's disclosures of potential conflicts of interest and author contributions are found at the end of this article.

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