A University of the Basque Country (UPV/EHU) study employs game theory to assert that tumors with lower cellular heterogeneity exhibit higher aggressiveness.
The convergence of mathematics, histopathology, and genomics substantiates the finding that the most aggressive clear cell renal cell carcinomas possess limited intratumor heterogeneity, implying a reduced diversity of cell types. Conducted by UPV/EHU Ikerbasque Research Professor Annick Laruelle, the study advocates the hypothesis that implementing therapeutic strategies to sustain elevated levels of cellular heterogeneity within the tumor could decelerate cancer progression and enhance survival rates.
Mathematical approaches are gaining traction in modern oncology as they provide fresh knowledge about the evolution of cancer and new opportunities for therapeutic improvement. So data obtained from mathematical analyses endorse many of the histological findings and genomic results. Game theory, for example, helps to understand the “social” interactions that occur between cancer cells. This novel perspective allows the scientific and clinical community to understand the hidden events driving the disease. In actual fact, considering a tumour as a collectivity of individuals governed by rules previously defined in ecology opens up new therapeutic possibilities for patients.
Within the framework of game theory, the hawk-dove game is a mathematical tool developed to analyse cooperation and competition in biology. When applied to cancer cell collectivities, it explains the possible behaviours of tumour cells when competing for an external resource. “It is a decision theory in which the outcome does not depend on one’s own decision alone, but also on the decision of the other actors,” explained Ikerbasque Research Professor Annick Laruelle, an expert in game theory in the UPV/EHU’s Department of Economic Analysis. “In the game, cells may act aggressively, like a hawk, or passively, like a dove, to acquire a resource.”
