  Self-renewal is a constitutive property of stem cells. Testing the cancer
stem cell hypothesis requires investigation of the impact of self-renewal on
cancer expansion. To understand better this impact, we propose a mathematical
model describing dynamics of a continuum of cell clones structured by the
self-renewal potential. The model is an extension of the finite
multi-compartment models of interactions between normal and cancer cells in
acute leukemias. It takes a form of a system of integro-differential equations
with a nonlinear and nonlocal coupling, which describes regulatory feedback
loops in cell proliferation and differentiation process. We show that such
coupling leads to mass concentration in points corresponding to maximum of the
self-renewal potential and the model solutions tend asymptotically to a linear
combination of Dirac measures. Furthermore, using a Lyapunov function
constructed for a finite dimensional counterpart of the model, we prove that
the total mass of the solution converges to a globally stable equilibrium.
Additionally, we show stability of the model in space of positive Radon
measures equipped with flat metric. The analytical results are illustrated by
numerical simulations.
