Past Event: Oden Institute Seminar

Predicting Tumor Growth with Biophysical Models Constrained by in vivo Imaging Data

Thomas Yankeelov, Professor, Biomedical Engineering, Vanderbilt University

Abstract

The overall goal of our research program is to develop tumor forecasting methods by integrating advanced imaging technologies with predictive, multi-scale, biophysical models of tumor growth to optimize therapeutic response on a patient-specific basis. To achieve this goal we have divided our efforts into approximately equal parts predictive modeling of tumor growth, development of advanced imaging methods in the pre-clinical setting, and application of those techniques in the clinical setting. After motivating the problem and briefly summarizing our modeling philosophy, we will highlight portions of each of these three components with a particular emphasis on predictive modeling. We will introduce the salient features of several quantitative imaging methods we routinely use, and then present how these data are used to initialize and constrain a series of progressively more complex biophysical models describing tumor growth and treatment response. Results from both the pre-clinical and clinical settings will be presented. We will conclude with a discussion of how we anticipate these models evolving and the problems they will be used to address.