This week in MathOnco 337

Adaptive therapy, drug resistance, multi-level selection, a few papers on game theory

“This week in Mathematical Oncology” — July 24, 2025

> mathematical-oncology.org

From the editor:

This week’s issue contains topics like adaptive therapy, drug resistance, multi-level selection, a few papers on game theory. Speaking of game theory, I recently wrote a thread reflecting on the history of game theory in cancer, that you might enjoy.

Thanks,

Jeffrey West
jeffrey.west@moffitt.org

1. On the design and stability of cancer adaptive therapy cycles: Deterministic and stochastic models

   Yuri G. Vilela, Artur C. Fassoni, Armando G.M. Neves

2. Genome-level selection in tumors as a universal marker of resistance to therapy
   Erez Persi, Praneeth R. Sudalagunta, Yuri I. Wolf, Rafael R. Canevarolo, Mehdi Damaghi, Kenneth H. Shain, Ariosto S. Silva & Eugene V. Koonin

3. In-silico patient-specific modelling of prostate cancer: Predicting PSA dynamics and treatment response
   Ángela Pérez-Benito, Adrián Galiana-Bordera, Pedro Miguel Martínez-Gironés, …, María José Gómez-Benito, María Ángeles Pérez

4. Applying multilevel selection to understand cancer evolution and progression
   Lucie Laplane, Anaïs Lamoureux, Harley I. Richker, Gissel Marquez Alcaraz, …, Paul S. Mischel, Anya Plutynski, Jeffrey P. Townsend, Carlo C. Maley

1. Using spatial statistics to infer game-theoretic interactions in an agent-based model of cancer cells
   Sydney Leither, Maximilian A. R. Strobl, Jacob G. Scott, Emily Dolson

2. Controlling treatment toxicity in ovarian cancer to prime the patient for tumor extinction therapy
   Kit Gallagher, Rachel S Sousa, Chandler Gatenbee, Ryan Schenck, …, Dawn Lemanne, Paulo Rodriguez, Erin George, Maximilian A R Strobl

3. Expected and minimal values of a universal tree balance index
   Veselin Manojlović, Armaan Ahmed, Yannick Viossat, Robert Noble

4. Which evolutionary game-theoretic model best captures NSCLC dynamics?
   Hasti Garjani, Johan Dubbeldam, Kateřina Staňková, Joel S. Brown

5. Optimising Chemotherapy for Advanced High-Grade Serous Ovarian Cancer via Delay-Differential Equations
   Cristina Koprinski, Georgio Hawi, Peter S. Kim

1. Adrianne Jenner

   Math Oncology Interviews by Thomas Hillen (YouTube)

The newsletter now has a dedicated homepage where we post the cover artwork for each issue. We encourage submissions that coincide with the release of a recent paper from your group. This week’s artwork:

Based on the paper: Computational modeling of cancer cell metabolism along the catabolic-anabolic axes, npj systems biology and applications

Artists: Dongya Jia and Jason George

Caption: Cancer cells are like climbers navigating a rugged mountain range - they shift their footing and change course based on what is needed to survive and ultimately thrive. One source of this adaptability stems from cancer cell metabolic plasticity: a remarkable ability to mix and match energy-producing strategies and fuel sources such as glucose, fats, and amino acids. What governs these choices? It is a dynamic interplay between genetic circuits and internal biochemical pathways. As a result, cancer cells can traverse a landscape of possibilities, rolling from one ‘valley’ of stability to another - much like marbles drifting between dips in a hilly terrain, a concept echoed in the Waddington landscape of developmental biology. To stop cancer in its tracks, we must understand - and disrupt - not just where these cells are now, but where they are poised to go next. This art was generated with help from Sarah Groves and ChatGPT.

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