Impacts of competition and phenotypic plasticity on the viability of adaptive therapy.

ABSTRACT: Cancer is heterogeneous and variability in drug sensitivity is widely documented across cancer types. Adaptive therapy is an emerging modality of cancer treatment that leverages this drug resistance heterogeneity to improve therapeutic outcomes. Current standard treatments typically eliminate a large fraction of drug-sensitive cells, leading to drug-resistant relapse due to competitive release. Adaptive therapy aims to retain some drug-sensitive cells, thereby limiting resistant cell growth by ecological competition. While early clinical trials of such a strategy have shown promise, optimisation of adaptive therapy is a subject of active study. Current methods largely assume cell phenotypes to remain constant, even though cell-state transitions could permit drug-sensitive and -resistant ph

SUBMITTER: Vibishan B 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC11974694 | biostudies-literature | 2025 Mar

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature