Using a stem cell and progeny model to illustrate the relationship between cell cycle times of in vivo human tumour cell tissue populations, in vitro primary cultures and the cell lines derived from them

There is increasing evidence that the growth of human tumours is driven by a small proportion of tumour stem cells with self-renewal properties. Multiplication of these cells leads to loss of self-renewal and after division for a finite number of times the cells undergo programmed cell death. Cell cycle times of human cancers have been measured in vivo and shown to vary in the range from two days to several weeks, depending on the individual. Cells cultured directly from tumours removed at surgery initially grow at a rate comparable to the in vivo rate but continued culture leads to the generation of cell lines that have shorter cycle times (1–3 days). It has been postulated that the more rapidly growing sub-population exhibits some of the properties of tumour stem cells and are the precursors of a slower growing sub-population that comprise the bulk of the tumour. We have previously developed a mathematical model to describe the behaviour of cell lines and we extend this model here to describe the behaviour of a system with two cell populations with different kinetic characteristics and a precursor–product relationship. The aim is to provide a framework for understanding the behaviour of cancer tissue that is sustained by a minor population of proliferating stem cells.