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Chapter 15
DOI: 10.4018/978-1-4666-2657-7.ch015
George I. Lambrou
University of Athens, Greece
Apostolos Zaravinos
University of Athens, Greece
Maria Adamaki
University of Athens, Greece
Spiros Vlahopoulos
University of Athens, Greece
Systems Modeling of
Proliferation Mechanisms
in Childhood Acute
Lymphoblastic Leukemia
ABSTRACT
Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia (ALL) is the most common neoplasm in children, but the mechanisms
underlying leukemogenesis are poorly understood, despite the existence of several theories regarding
the mechanics of leukemic cell proliferation. However, with the advent of new biological principles, it
appears that a systems approach could be used in an effective search of global patterns in biological
systems, so as to be able to model the phenomenon of proliferation and gain a better understanding of
how cells may progress from a healthy to a diseased state. This chapter reviews the current knowledge
on proliferation dynamics, along with a discussion of the several existing theories on leukemogenesis
and their comparison with the theories governing general oncogenesis. Furthermore, the authors pres-
ent some “in-house” experimental data that support the view that it is possible to model leukemic cell
proliferation and explain how this has been performed in in vitro experiments.