Optimal strategy and benefit of pulsed therapy depend on tumor heterogeneity and aggressiveness at time of treatment initiation Journal Article


Authors: Mathur, D.; Taylor, B. P.; Chatila, W. K.; Scher, H. I.; Schultz, N.; Razavi, P.; Xavier, J. B.
Article Title: Optimal strategy and benefit of pulsed therapy depend on tumor heterogeneity and aggressiveness at time of treatment initiation
Abstract: Therapeutic resistance is a fundamental obstacle in cancer treatment. Tumors that initially respond to treatment may have a preexisting resistant subclone or acquire resistance during treatment, making relapse theoretically inevitable. Here, we investigate treatment strategies that may delay relapse using mathematical modeling. We find that for a single-drug therapy, pulse treatment-short, elevated doses followed by a complete break from treatment-delays relapse compared with continuous treatment with the same total dose over a length of time. For tumors treated with more than one drug, continuous combination treatment is only sometimes better than sequential treatment, while pulsed combination treatment or simply alternating between the two therapies at defined intervals delays relapse the longest. These results are independent of the fitness cost or benefit of resistance, and are robust to noise. Machine-learning analysis of simulations shows that the initial tumor response and heterogeneity at the start of treatment suffice to determine the benefit of pulsed or alternating treatment strategies over continuous treatment. Analysis of eight tumor burden trajectories of breast cancer patients treated at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center shows the model can predict time to resistance using initial responses to treatment and estimated preexisting resistant populations. The model calculated that pulse treatment would delay relapse in all eight cases. Overall, our results support that pulsed treatments optimized by mathematical models could delay therapeutic resistance.
Keywords: survival; chemotherapy; evolution; dynamics; breast-cancer; women; drug-resistance; dose-dense; postmenopausal; combination; paclitaxel resistance
Journal Title: Molecular Cancer Therapeutics
Volume: 21
Issue: 5
ISSN: 1535-7163
Publisher: American Association for Cancer Research  
Date Published: 2022-05-01
Start Page: 831
End Page: 843
Language: English
ACCESSION: WOS:000795893000001
DOI: 10.1158/1535-7163.Mct-21-0574
PROVIDER: wos
PMCID: PMC9081172
PUBMED: 35247928
Notes: Article -- Source: Wos
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MSK Authors
  1. Joao Debivar Xavier
    97 Xavier
  2. Howard Scher
    1130 Scher
  3. Nikolaus D Schultz
    487 Schultz
  4. Pedram Razavi
    172 Razavi
  5. Walid Khaled Chatila
    102 Chatila
  6. Bradford P Taylor
    9 Taylor
  7. Deepti Mathur
    7 Mathur