Published online by Cambridge University Press: 26 March 2009
In this paper, we consider a system of nonlinear delay-differential equations(DDEs) which models the dynamics of the interaction between chronic myelogenousleukemia (CML), imatinib, and the anti-leukemia immune response. Because of thechaotic nature of the dynamics and the sparse nature of experimental data, welook for ways to use computation to analyze the model without employing directnumerical simulation. In particular, we develop several tools usingLyapunov-Krasovskii analysis that allow us to test the robustness of the modelwith respect to uncertainty in patient parameters. The methods developed in thispaper are applied to understanding which model parameters primarily affect thedynamics of the anti-leukemia immune response during imatinib treatment. Thegoal of this research is to aid the development of more efficient modelingapproaches and more effective treatment strategies in cancer therapy.