A mathematical model of the acute myeloblastic leukemic state in man.

A dynamical mathematical model of the acute myeloblastic leukemic state is proposed in which normal neutrophils and their precursors, and leukemic myeloblasts, proliferate as distinct but interacting cell populations. Each population has a Go compartment, consisting of resting cells, that acts as a control center to determine the rate of proliferation. These rates are assumed to depend on the total number of cells in the combined populations. The presence of the leukemic population destabilizes the homeostatic state of the normal population, which is stable in the absence of leukemic cells, and drives the system to a new stable state consisting entirely of leukemic cells and no normal cells. Calculations based on the theory suggest that it is able to simulate the kinetic features of this disease state, at least in its typical manifestations.