How Regulatory CD25+CD4+ T Cells Impinge on Tumor Immunobiology: The Differential Response of Tumors to Therapies

Aiming to get a better insight on the impact of regulatory CD25+CD4+ T cells in tumor-immunobiology, a simple mathematical model was previously formulated and studied. This model predicts the existence of two alternative modes of uncontrolled tumor growth, which differ on their coupling with the immune system, providing a plausible explanation to the observation that the development of some tumors expand regulatory T cells whereas others do not. We report now the study of how these two tumor classes respond to different therapies, namely vaccination, immune suppression, surgery, and their different combinations. We show 1) how the timing and the dose applied in each particular treatment determine whether the tumor will be rejected, with or without concomitant autoimmunity, or whether it will continue progressing with slower or faster pace; 2) that both regulatory T cell-dependent and independent tumors are equally sensitive to vaccination, although the former are more sensitive to T cell depletion treatments and are unresponsive to partial surgery alone; 3) that surgery, suppression, and vaccination treatments, can synergistically improve their individual effects, when properly combined. Particularly, we predict rational combinations helping to overcome the limitation of these individual treatments on the late stage of tumor development.