A family of models of angiogenesis and antiangiogenic anticancer therapy

In this paper we propose a class of models that describe the mutual interaction between tumour growth and the development of tumour vasculature, and that generalize existing models. The study is mainly focused on the effect of a therapy that induces tumour vessel loss (antiangiogenic therapy), with the aim of finding conditions that asymptotically guarantee the eradication of the disease under constant infusion or periodic administration of the drug. Furthermore, if tumour and/or vessel dynamics exhibit time delays, we derive conditions for the existence of Hopf bifurcations. The destabilising effect of delays on achieving the tumour eradication is also investigated. Finally, global conditions for stability and eradication in the presence of delays are given for some particular cases.