too different, and different was the technical language that scien-
tists were using to describe the same phenomenon. In short, some
decades ago Biophysics (and Biomathematics even more) was to be
seen as a niche in the broad realm of Biology. However, the situa-
tions started to change when mathematical modeling appeared to
be an extremely useful tool in the successfully understanding of
complicated underlying dynamics as in viruses for instance, espe-
cially in the case of patients’ HIV blood testing eventually leading
to an AIDS diagnosis [15]. Biophysics, Biomathematics and all the
other Biological Sciences needed to meet and possibly to merge
somewhere. Time was ready for the Systems Biology revolution
whose manifesto could be recognized to be Denis Noble’s “The
Music of Life” book [16].
The aim of Systems Biology is, by taking full advantage of the
quite recent impressive boost in performance of computers and
scientific instrumentation, to integrate different datasets from
experiments with several mathematical biophysical descriptions of
the same biological system. In particular, in a zoom-in and zoom-
out perspective, it aims to predict, control, and possibly explain Life
through an “in silico” living being. The paradigm is entirely inclu-
sive for all the Sciences involved, i.e., Biology, Chemistry, Physics,
Mathematics, Engineering, Computer Sciences, Medicine and Vet-
erinary up to Economics, Philosophy and even Sociology. A natural
question would arise at this stage: which type of biological pro-
blems would truly require the involvement of some many different
competencies to be addressed and successfully explained and con-
trolled? A natural answer comes immediately in mind: cancer for
instance.
Cancer has always constituted a central problem for human-
kind, although in the past century only two major large-scale
campaigns, in Germany in the 1930s [17] and in the US with
1971 National Cancer Act, have been initiated trying to find a
cure. This ambitious target was not reached. However, the knowl-
edge acquired became a solid background for all the subsequent
studies, in particular for a Cancer Systems Biology
formulation [18].
Cancer is believed to begin at cellular level developing somatic
mutations which result transferred from a cell to its progeny. In this
process, a failure of controls by the immune system is mainly
responsible for the tumor development, and for these reasons
cancer analyses require proper knowledge of Immunology. Inciden-
tally, similar failures occur also in the case of some Virus infections
as HIV for instance, so that in standard Immunology volumes [19]
both these pathologies are examined, sometimes highlighting pos-
sible similarities in their dynamics.
Cancers are very diversified, although in a simplified way they
can be divided into two broad families, i.e., solid and liquid ones
and in the rest of this work we shall focus on the former case.
Systems Biology Modelling 205