Uncovering the underlying physical mechanism for cancer-immunity of MHC class I diversity.

The cancer cells are heterogeneous populated, which can be classified as MHC class I positive and MHC I class negative. They influence the immune system differently. In this work, we build a core cancer-immune circuit of MHC class I diversity including MHC class I positive cancer type, MHC I class I negative cancer type and 4 immune cell types to uncover the underlying mechanism of the cancer immunity based on the underlying landscape topography. We quantify four steady state attractors, normal state, two low cancer states and a high cancer state. The landscape topography changes upon changes in cancer self-activation and the related killing rate of the killer cells are illustrated. It demonstrates that the competition between the two cancer cell types. We simulate the tumorigenesis and development of cancer according to its biological process and classify these into 7 stages. This landscape framework provides a quantitative way to understand characteristics of these two cancer cell types under immune microenvironment and the underlying physical mechanisms of cancer cell evolution along cancer development.