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. Author manuscript; available in PMC: 2018 Jun 1.
Published in final edited form as: Cancer Res. 2017 Oct 6;77(23):6717–6728. doi: 10.1158/0008-5472.CAN-17-1120

Figure 1. Chemotherapy is a selective agent that alters the fitness landscape of cells.

Figure 1

(a) The dose strength parameter, c, (0 ≤ c ≤ 1), alters the selection pressure parameter, w, (0 ≤ w ≤ 1), in favor of the healthy cell population (wH > w) and to the disadvantage of the cancer cell population (wC < w). (b) Total dose density delivered in the one chemotherapeutic cycle, D, is the product of the dose strength (c, 0 ≤ c ≤ 1) and dose interval (d, 0 ≤ d ≤ 1) such that D = ct (eqn. 13 (0 ≤ D ≤ 1)). (c,d,e) Plots showing the fitness of the healthy cell subpopulation (fH, dashed line) and the cancer cell subpopulation (fC, dotted line) for no therapy, low dose therapy, and high dose therapy.