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CANCELLED An ODE mixed-effect model of vascular tumor growth with anti-angiogenic treatment

Dr Shelby Wilson ( Department of Biology, University of Maryland )

CANCELLED

Due to unforeseen circumstances, Dr Shelby Wilson’s seminar (2pm Friday 31st Jan) is cancelled.

Angiogenesis, the process of the creation of new blood vessels from the existing vasculature, is a necessary step in tumor progression. Consequently, anti-angiogenic treatments have become of particular interest in cancer treatment. Despite the initial enthusiasm, there have been many conflicting results concerning the efficacy of anti-angiogenic treatments.  Hence, the benefits of such treatments remain under debate. The dynamics associated with treating cancer with anti-angiogenic drugs are complex.  These dynamics must be understood in order to maximize the benefits of such a therapy.  We use mathematical modeling as a strategy to quantify the dynamics of the interactions between tumor growth, vasculature generation and anti-angiogenic treatment.  We have developed a non-linear, mixed-effect ODE model of tumor growth and treatment of colorectal cancer.  Model development is guided by preclinical data of from colorectal tumor bearing mice treated with sunitinib (anti-angiogenic). Parameters are estimated in a mixed-effect fashion (i.e. parameter values for both the population and each individual are estimated) using the SAEM (Stochastic Approximation of the Expectation Maximization algorithm) algorithm.  This model accurately predicts tumor growth dynamics of individual subjects and allows us to study the multifaceted effects of anti-angiogenic treatment.  This study will thus help in the development of evidence-based treatment protocols designed to optimize the effectiveness of anti-angiogenics, and eventually their combination with other cancer therapies.

 

 

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