Copyright © 2012 Chipo Mufudza et al. This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

Abstract

Worldwide, breast cancer has become the second most common cancer in women. The disease has currently been named the most deadly cancer in women but little is known on what causes the disease. We present the effects of estrogen as a risk factor on the dynamics of breast cancer. We develop a deterministic mathematical model showing general dynamics of breast cancer with immune response. This is a four-population model that includes tumor cells, host cells, immune cells, and estrogen. The effects of estrogen are then incorporated in the model. The results show that the presence of extra estrogen increases the risk of developing breast cancer.