A mathematical model of chronic myelogenous leukemia

Thesis

Chronic Myelogenous Leukemia (CML) is one of the most common types of leukemia. It is characterized by a chronic, seemingly stable steady state, which gives rise to oscillatory instability in the hematapoietic stem cell count. There are also many cases of CML which involve oscillations about a steady state during the chronic period (called Periodic Chronic Myelogenous Leukemia). Though instabilities are found frequently in many biological systems, it is rather unusual for the stem cell count in a patient with leukemia to be nonmonotonic over time. As such, the instability in CML is of tremendous interest to mathematical biologists. A more clear understanding of the dynamics of this disease might not only help with the development of treatments or a cure to CML, but it might also be a useful aid in determining what causes instability in other oscillatory diseases such as Cyclical Neutropenia. This paper's aim is to create a mathematical model of CML which might aid us in understanding the mechanism by which the chronic phase of the disease becomes unstable and reaches the acute phase.

Authors: Neiman, B

• Publisher: University of Oxford;Mathematical Institute
• Publication date: 2000
• Type of award: DPhil
• Level of award: Doctoral