Simulating cancer-cell kinetics after drug treatment: Application to cisplatin on ovarian carcinoma

The kinetics of a cancer-cell population under the effects of an antitumoral drug is a topic of particular interest. Its theoretical understanding, along with the improvement of experimental investigation techniques, can indeed play an important role in antitumoral therapies development. Starting from the analysis of flow-cytometric data, with the aid of computer simulation we are able to give a detailed, quantitative description of the main kinetic parameters describing drug action on cancer cells. In this paper we describe the main features of our investigation method, showing an application to Igrov-1 ovarian carcinoma cells treated with cisplatin. Intermitotic time of phases, cell-cycle delay, and block effects with consequent repair or cell mortality, in a wide range of drug doses and recovery times, are discussed and interesting information about cisplatin action is found.