Background: Clinical and experimental observations indicate that resistance to anticancer drugs may be spontaneously reversible over time.
Materials and methods: This work is a mathematical and statistical analysis of the relationship, during a 9-month experiment, between the resistance of repeatedly re-seeded hepatoma cells to methotrexate (MTX) or to cisplatin (cisP) and untreated cell proliferation, telomere length and telomerase activity.
Results: All variables showed complex oscillations, as previously published. In this work, cell proliferation was modelized by the logistic model, and the proliferation rates (a-values) together with their variations (va-values) were calculated.
Conclusion: Significant correlations were discovered between cell resistance to treatments and a-values, va-values, telomere length and telomerase activities. These results open new insights into the handling of chemotherapy in the treatment of cancers.