Scientists at the Moffitt Cancer Center in Florida have developed mathematical models that could predict how tumours grow and when to give medications to better treat cancer patients.
鈥淐ancer is considered a complex system, not unlike the weather,鈥� Dr. Alexander Anderson, chair of at the Moffitt Cancer Center, told CTV鈥檚 Your Morning on Friday.
Cancer is a disease in which mutations lead to uncontrolled and abnormal growth in cells. Part of what makes it so difficult to treat is that cancer is constantly evolving and adapting.
鈥淯nderstanding the dynamics of a cancer, how it grows and evolves is not something that鈥檚 intuitive; it鈥檚 something that you can write down in equations and those equations can describe this non-linear and non-intuitive behaviour better than a human could,鈥� said Dr. Anderson.
Most cancer treatments aim to cure cancer however, Anderson said that this might not always be the best course of treatment.
鈥淲hen we give continuous, dose-dense therapies, what you鈥檙e treating is the sensitive cells and you鈥檙e treating so long that you wipe out all the sensitive cells and all that you leave behind are the resistant cells,鈥� explained Anderson.
When there are only resistant cells left, treatment no longer works.
Instead, the goal of Anderson鈥檚 treatment isn鈥檛 to cure but rather to stave off metastasis and prolong life.
The mathematical models let doctors run various different treatment scenarios through an algorithm to determine the best one, without ever actually having to test anything on the patient themselves.
Using the algorithms, Anderson is able to find the sweet spot, not too much treatment and not too little, so that the treatment can be applied over and over again and ultimately control the tumour.
鈥淚t鈥檚 much more like treating cancer like a chronic disease,鈥� he said.
The Moffitt Cancer Center has been trialing this technique on metastatic prostate cancer patients for two years and according to Anderson there have been positive results.
鈥淭he median survival of those patients is 11 to 12 months with continuous therapies but we have patients now that are going out two and a half years,鈥� he said. 鈥淲e鈥檙e not curing them; we鈥檙e controlling their disease.鈥�
Anderson is now working on more clinical trials that are looking at different kinds of cancer such as thyroid and skin cancer.
More research is needed before this approach makes its way into general practice but Anderson hopes that eventually it will be used in hospitals and cancer centres around the world.
鈥淭ailoring mathematical models to each individual patient鈥檚 cancer and using that as a predictive tool shouldn鈥檛 be that far out. We鈥檙e talking five years probably,鈥� he said.
