Fig. 1
From: Genetic instability as a driver for immune surveillance
A schematic summary of the basic cancer-immune cell-cell interactions. The two key components are (a) a tumor population driven by genetic instability and (b–c) interactions associated to tumor cell recognition and attack by T and NK cells. The strength T cell attack depends on the number of surface neoantigens (c), while NK killing is constant [27]. In (d) the population-level interaction diagram is displayed based on the model in [20]. Here c and E indicate the number of cancer and T and NK cells, respectively. Cancer cells grow at a rate r (and have a limited carrying capacity) while immune cells enter the system at a constant production rate m and react at malignant cells at a rate ρ that will be different for NK cells and instability-dependent T cell recognition. A constant average death rate d is associated with their removal. Two constant cross-interactions rates are also indicated as δT and δc associated to the removal efficiency of cancer cells and the death of immune cells resulting from the same process, respectively