Evolutionary Modeling of Cancer

Mathematical methods can be used to study evolutionary processes associated with carcinogenesis. Selection, mutation, and drift all play a role in cancer dynamics and cancer treatment. I will present two very general types of evolutionary patterns that occur in the context of many cancers: loss-of-function and gain-of-function mutations. This will be followed by a discussions of different scenarios of cell population dynamics  -- including stochastic tunneling and calculating the rate of cancer evolution. Applications include understanding the role of aspirin in prevention of colorectal cancer.

Learning Objectives:

1. Elucidate the mechanism of aspirin on cellular evolution by studying its impact on cellular kinetics in vitro and in vivo.

2. Examine the effects of aspirin on the epidemiology of advanced adenoma.

3. Discuss mathematical and computational methods of modeling cacrinogenesis.