{"entity":{"id":"immune-tumour-dynamics-models","kind":"technology","name":"Tumour-immune dynamics models","aka":[],"tldr":"Predator-prey style equations describe how immune cells hunt tumour cells, and they reproduce dormancy, escape and the delayed, sometimes explosive, responses seen with immunotherapy; they now help design combination and scheduling trials.","summary":"Kuznetsov and colleagues' 1994 model treated effector immune cells and tumour cells as interacting populations, reproducing dormancy, sneaking-through and oscillations. Later models added checkpoints, exhaustion, antigen presentation and cytokines, and have been used to explain pseudoprogression and hyperprogression under PD-1 blockade, to propose sequencing of radiotherapy and immunotherapy, and to simulate CAR-T expansion and cytokine release. Quantitative systems pharmacology models of checkpoint blockade are increasingly used by developers to choose doses and combinations.","status":"emerging","asOf":"2026-09-17","links":[{"label":"Kuznetsov and colleagues 1994, Bulletin of Mathematical Biology","url":"https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02460644"}],"tags":["mathematical-model"],"related":[],"cancers":[],"sections":["ai-computation","drug-discovery"],"technologies":["checkpoint-inhibitor","car-t","quantitative-systems-pharmacology"],"targets":[],"drugs":[],"companies":[],"institutions":[],"pathways":[],"terms":[],"trials":[],"people":[],"bottlenecks":[],"keyPapers":[],"journals":[],"notes":[],"principle":"Coupled ordinary differential equations for tumour and immune populations with recruitment, killing, exhaustion and suppression terms, whose equilibria correspond to dormancy, escape or elimination.","strengths":["Explains non-linear immunotherapy responses","Guides sequencing with radiotherapy and chemotherapy","Extends to CAR-T kinetics"],"limitations":["Immune parameters are poorly identifiable","Spatial and antigen heterogeneity simplified","Predictions rarely validated prospectively"],"since":1994},"route":"/technologies/immune-tumour-dynamics-models/","neighbours":{"section":[{"id":"ai-computation","kind":"section","name":"AI & Computation","route":"/fronts/ai-computation/"},{"id":"drug-discovery","kind":"section","name":"Drug Discovery Platforms","route":"/fronts/drug-discovery/"}],"technology":[{"id":"car-t","kind":"technology","name":"CAR-T cell therapy","route":"/technologies/car-t/"},{"id":"checkpoint-inhibitor","kind":"technology","name":"Immune checkpoint inhibitors","route":"/technologies/checkpoint-inhibitor/"},{"id":"quantitative-systems-pharmacology","kind":"technology","name":"Quantitative systems pharmacology (QSP)","route":"/technologies/quantitative-systems-pharmacology/"}]}}