Cells, cancer, and rare events: homeostatic metastability in stochastic non-linear dynamics models of skin cell proliferation
| dc.creator | Warren, Patrick B. | |
| dc.date | 2009-03-04 | |
| dc.date.accessioned | 2026-07-07T12:49:06Z | |
| dc.date.available | 2026-07-07T12:49:06Z | |
| dc.description | A recently proposed single progenitor cell model for skin cell proliferation [Clayton et al., Nature v446, 185 (2007)] is extended to incorporate homeostasis as a fixed point of the dynamics. Unlimited cell proliferation in such a model can be viewed as a paradigm for the onset of cancer. A novel way in which this can arise is if the homeostatic fixed point becomes metastable, so that the cell populations can escape from the homeostatic basin of attraction by a large but rare stochastic fluctuation. Such an event can be viewed as the final step in a multi-stage model of carcinogenesis. This offers a possible explanation for the peculiar epidemiology of lung cancer in ex-smokers. | |
| dc.description | 4 pages, 2 figures, RevTeX 4.0 | |
| dc.identifier | https://arxiv.org/abs/0903.0816 | |
| dc.identifier | http://arxiv.org/abs/0903.0816 | |
| dc.identifier.uri | http://salesiana.dossiersoluciones.com/handle/123456789/222285 | |
| dc.subject | Cell Behavior | |
| dc.subject | Statistical Mechanics | |
| dc.title | Cells, cancer, and rare events: homeostatic metastability in stochastic non-linear dynamics models of skin cell proliferation | |
| dc.type | text |