Ecology of cancer: an evolutionary game theory approach to model cancer growth

In the thesis we focus on multiple myeloma bone disease. In this cancer three types of cells are present. Among the different groups of cells, we will identify two groups of cells that we will call "residents" that are healthy cells normally present in the body -i.e. osteoblast (OB) and osteoclast (OC) -, and a third group of mutant malignant cells (MM) - i.e. the tumor - that we call "invaders" that tries to replace the osteoblasts. The aim is to analyze a deterministic model of the dynamics of the evolution of these three types of cells and explore the effects of different interaction networks among cell groups. Main theoretical tool for our analysis will be Evolutionary Game Theory (EGT).