Global smooth solutions in a chemotaxis system modeling immune response to a solid tumor

Abstract

This manuscript studies a no-flux initial-boundary value problem for a four-component chemotaxis system that has been proposed as a model for the response of cytotoxic T-lymphocytes to a solid tumor. In contrast to classical Keller-Segel type situations focusing on two-component interplay of chemotaxing populations with a signal directly secreted by themselves, the presently considered system accounts for a certain indirect mechanism of attractant evolution. Despite the presence of a zero-order exciting nonlinearity of quadratic type that forms a core mathematical feature of the model, the manuscript asserts the global existence of classical solutions for initial data of arbitrary size in three-dimensional domains.