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Abstract

Cancer is a group of complex diseases characterized by excessive cell proliferation, invasion, anddestruction of the surrounding tissue (Vinay Kumar,2017). Its high division and mutation rateslead to excessive genetic diversity among tumour cells (intra tumour genetic heterogeneity).As a consequence, tumours can adapt very efficiently to environmental pressures, in particularto cancer therapy (Turajlic, Sottoriva, Graham, & Swanton,2019). This process is known assomatic evolution of cancer.Throughout most of its existence a tumour is inaccessible to direct observation and experi-mental evaluation through genetic sequencing of tumour samples. Therefore, computationalmodelling can be useful to study many aspects of cancer. Examples where theoretical modelscan be of great use include (i) early carcinogenesis, as lesions are clinically observable whenthey already contain millions of cells, (ii) seeding of metastases, and (iii) cancer cell dormancy(Altrock, Liu, & Michor,2015).