By Natalia L. Komarova & C. Richard Boland
In a study published in eLIFE, Bozic et al. 1 use a mathematical approach to examine tumour evolution and response to chemotherapy. In one example, they describe a patient who had the skin cancer melanoma characterized by an estimated tumour burden of 9.8 × 10 10 cells and 8 metastatic lesions. Their modelling predicts a 0% chance of disease control using a single drug, but that the likelihood of successful treatment could rise to 88% during combined therapy with two drugs. The approach offers a brave, quantitative look at designing targeted therapy for cancer.
