Logistic tumor-population growth and ghost-points symmetry

The observed time evolution of a population is well approximated by a logistic function in many research fields, including oncology, ecology, chemistry, demography, economy, linguistics, and artificial neural networks. Initial growth is exponential at a constant rate and capped at a limit size, i.e., the carrying capacity. In mathematical oncology, the carrying capacity has been postulated to be co-evolving and thus patient-specific. As the relative tumor-over-carrying capacity ratio may be predictive and prognostic for tumor growth and treatment response dynamics, it is paramount to estimate it from limited clinical data. We show that exploiting the logistic function’s rotation symmetry can help estimate the population’s growth rate and carry capacity from fewer data points than conventional regression approaches. We test this novel approach against a classic oncology database of logistic tumor growth, achieving a 30% to 40% reduction in the time necessary to correctly estimate the logistic growth rate and carrying capacity. Our results will improve tumor dynamics forecasting and augment the clinical decision-making process.