Mathematical Ecology of Cancer

It is an emerging understanding that cancer does not describe one disease, or one type of aggressive cell, but, rather, a complicated interaction of many abnormal features and many different cell types, which is situated in a heterogeneous habitat of normal tissue. Hence, as proposed by Gatenby, and Merlo et al., cancer should be seen as an ecosystem; issues such as invasion, competition, predator-prey interaction, mutation, selection, evolution and extinction play an important role in determining outcomes. It is not surprising that many methods from mathematical ecology can be adapted to the modeling of cancer. This paper is a statement about the important connections between ecology and cancer modelling. We present a brief overview about relevant similarities and then focus on three aspects; treatment and control, mutations and evolution, and invasion and metastasis. The goal is to spark curiosity and to bring together mathematical oncology and mathematical ecology to initiate cross fertilization between these fields. We believe that, in the long run, ecological methods and models will enable us to move ahead in the design of treatment to fight this devastating disease.