This week in MathOnco 364

Somatic evolution, game theory, precision medicine, digital twins

“This week in Mathematical Oncology” — March 19, 2026

> mathematical-oncology.org

From the editor:

Today’s issue contains topics like somatic evolution, game theory, precision medicine, digital twins, and more. Don’t forget to check out today’s artwork, based on a recent paper from my group as well!

Another one of the TWiMO leaders (Maxi Strobl) is teaming up with Guim Aguadé-Gorgorió (ISEM, France) to organize a neat seminar series to bridge mathematical ecology and oncology.

Enjoy,

Jeffrey West
jeffrey.west@moffitt.org

TWiMO is brought to you by Maximilian Strobl, Sarah Groves, Veronika Hofmann, Yifan Chen, Franco Pradelli, and Sandy Anderson. Find out more about the team here.

1. How somatic evolution affects health
   Alex Cagan

2. Inverse game theory characterizes frequency-dependent selection driven by karyotypic diversity in triple negative breast cancer
   Thomas Veith, Richard J. Beck, Joel S. Brown, Noemi Andor

3. Towards evolutionary guided precision medicine of acute myeloid leukemia and Fanconi anemia associated bone marrow failure
   Robert A Beckman, Pamela S Becker, Julia Gallini, Gary M Kupfer, Alvin P Makohon-Moore, Matthew D McCoy, Oleksandr Sverdlov

4. Bayesian Decision-Making Shapes Phenotypic Landscapes from Differentiation to Cancer
   Arnab Barua, Haralampos Hatzikirou

5. Development of a Joint Tumor Size–Overall Survival Modeling and Simulation Framework Supporting Oncology Development Decision-Making
   Herbert Struemper, Chetan Rathi, Morris Muliaditan, Sebastiaan C. Goulooze, Richard C. Franzese, Alejandro Mantero, Murad Melhem, Teun M. Post, Sandra A. G. Visser

6. Mathematical modeling of planar cell polarity: principles, approaches, and open questions
   Mohd Suhail Rizvi, Mohit Kumar Jolly

7. Networked collective dynamics in animal ecology and cell biology.
   Sun Y, Wang H, Liu X, Wen G, Lin W, Maini PK.

8. Digital Twins in Neuro-Oncology: A Systematic Review of Current Implementations
   Singh A, Qureshy FA, Kurtz A, Bhattacharya M, Prasanna P, Singh G.

1. Stochastic Evolutionary Control in Heterogeneous Populations
   Peng Chen, Jonathan Asher Pachter, Jacob G. Scott, Michael Hinczewski

2. Inference of Cancer Drug Cross Resistance Using Only Single-Drug Exposure Data
   Frederick J.H. Whiting, Ioanna Mavrommati, Ahmet Acar, Alvaro Ingles Russo Garces, Udai Banerji, Andrea Sottoriva, Rachael Natrajan, Trevor A. Graham

1. New Virtual Seminar Series: Eco-Onco Exchange
   We’re excited to announce Eco-Onco Exchange - a virtual seminar series aiming to bring together early-career researchers working in mathematical ecology and oncology. We’re excited to announce the first three sessions:

   - Growth functions (Onofrio Mazzarisi, Jesus Bosque):
   Wed 22 April, 5pm CEST/4pm BST/11am EDT

   - Interactions (Lisa Buche, Jeff Maltas):
   Wed 6 May, 5pm CEST/4pm BST/11am EDT

   - Space (Benoit Pichon, Josh Bull):
   Wed 17 June, 5pm CEST/4pm BST/11am EDT

   To register, click here. Organisers: Guim Aguadé-Gorgorió (ISEM, France), Maximilian Strobl (ICR, UK)

   

The newsletter now has a dedicated homepage where we post the cover artwork for each issue, curated by Maximilian Strobl, Sarah Groves, and Veronika Hofmann. We encourage submissions that coincide with the release of a recent paper from your group. This week’s artwork:

Based on the paper: Cell State Transitions Drive the Evolution of Disease Progression in B-Lymphoblastic Leukemia published in Cancer Research Communications

Artists: Sadegh Marzban (@s_marzban), Jeffrey West (@mathoncbro)

Caption: This artwork aggregates patient-specific transitions between four immunophenotypic states defined by CD34 and CD38 expression, visualized as an overlaid chord network. In BCR::ABL1-positive disease (right circle), pathways leading into the stem-like CD34⁺/CD38⁻ compartment are prominent, reflecting dedifferentiation dynamics, while in BCR::ABL1-negative disease (left circle) outgoing flows from this compartment dominate. These distinct transition topologies, inferred from a Markov model trained on clinical flow cytometry, reveal how genotype and stochastic state transitions govern disease progression.

Visit the mathematical oncology page to view jobs, meetings, and special issues. We will post new additions here, but the full list can found at mathematical-oncology.org.

1. Jobs

2. Conferences / Meetings

• Virtual Seminar Series: Eco-Onco Exchange

3. Special issues

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