How Can Math Help Beat Cancer?
Cancer treatment has come a long way in recent decades. But finding the best course of treatment for each case of this diverse, dynamic disease remains a challenge. In this episode, co-host Steven Strogatz speaks with computational biologist Franziska Michor about how math, statistical models and machine learning may be critical to the next generation of cancer care.
The Joy of Why · Steven Strogatz, Janna Levin and Quanta Magazine
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Show Notes
When we think about medicine’s war on cancer, treatments such as surgery, radiation and chemotherapy spring to mind first. Now there is another potential weapon for defeating tumors: statistics and mathematical models that can optimize the selection, combination or timing of treatment. Building and feeding these models requires accounting for the complexity of the body, and recognizing that cancer cells are constantly evolving.
In this episode, host Steven Strogatz hears from Franziska Michor, a computational biologist, about how our understanding of evolutionary dynamics is being used to devise new anticancer therapies.