Surviving Breast Cancer: Mia K. Markey’s Quest to Improve Patients’ Lives from Diagnosis to Reconstruction

Professor Tom Yankeelov develops mathematical models to forecast how breast tumors will grow, change and respond to treatment. Yankeelov and his colleagues in the Center for Computational Oncology, use advanced imaging techniques to measure specific tumor characteristics (e.g. blood flow and proliferation), and then puts these data into biophysical models to predict how a tumor will respond to therapy. Advances in imaging science, applied mathematics and computer simulation make it possible for Yankeelov and his team to build models designed to optimize treatments on an individual patient basis. Importantly, their team is performing these studies in collaboration with US Oncology, Seton Healthcare Family and Austin Radiological Society — a true public-private partnership between biomedical engineers and practicing physicians in the Austin metropolitan area.

“Our goal is to learn the mathematical laws of cancer, so that ultimately we have a set of equations that we are confident can recapitulate the spatial and temporal development of a tumor,” Yankeelov said.