Metastasis Initiation Precedes Detection of Primary Cancer—Analysis of Metastasis Growth in vivo in a Colorectal Cancer Test Case

ABSTRACT: Most cases of deaths from colorectal cancer (CRC) result from metastases, which are often still undetectable at disease detection time. Even so, in many cases, shedding is assumed to have taken place before that time. The dynamics of metastasis formation and growth are not well-established. This work aims to explore CRC lung metastasis growth rate and dynamics. We analyzed a test case of a metastatic CRC patient with four lung metastases, with data of four serial computed tomography (CT) scans measuring metastasis sizes while untreated. We fitted three mathematical growth models—exponential, logistic, and Gompertzian—to the CT measurements. For each metastasis, a best-fitted model was determined, tumor doubling time (TDT) was assessed, and metastasis inception time was extrapolated. Three

SUBMITTER: Hochman G 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC7773782 | biostudies-literature | 2020 Jan

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature