Introduction to Mathematical Oncology presents biologically well-motivated and mathematically tractable models that facilitate both a deep understanding of cancer biology and better cancer treatment designs. It covers the medical and biological background of the diseases, modeling issues, and existing methods and their limitations. The authors introduce mathematical and programming tools, along with analytical and numerical studies of the models. They also develop new mathematical tools and look to future improvements on dynamical models.
After introducing the general theory of medicine and exploring how mathematics can be essential in its understanding, the text describes well-known, practical, and insightful mathematical models of avascular tumor growth and mathematically tractable treatment models based on ordinary differential equations. It continues the topic of avascular tumor growth in the context of partial differential equation models by incorporating the spatial structure and physiological structure, such as cell size. The book then focuses on the recent active multi-scale modeling efforts on prostate cancer growth and treatment dynamics. It also examines more mechanistically formulated models, including cell quota-based population growth models, with applications to real tumors and validation using clinical data. The remainder of the text presents abundant additional historical, biological, and medical background materials for advanced and specific treatment modeling efforts.
Extensively classroom-tested in undergraduate and graduate courses, this self-contained book allows instructors to emphasize specific topics relevant to clinical cancer biology and treatment. It can be used in a variety of ways, including a single-semester undergraduate course, a more ambitious graduate course, or a full-year sequence on mathematical oncology.
Industry Reviews
"Introduction to Mathematical Oncology is both timely and unique. It is rich with a broad range of examples and important historical contexts. There is a clear sense of the importance of integrating rigorous mathematical analysis with numerical simulations. This book will be an important addition to the libraries of faculty and students who are interested in teaching and/or learning critical techniques for mathematical modeling of cancer dynamics."
-Trachette L. Jackson, Professor of Mathematics, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, USA
"This is a very interesting and well-written book ... The book chapters cover a wide range of topics related to cancer dynamics and treatments focusing on chemotherapy and radiotherapy as the most traditional and commonly used procedures. Various types of cancer are discussed from the point of view of their growth, progression, and treatment with a special emphasis on prostate cancer, an area where the authors have made significant research contributions. All the topics covered are presented in an easily accessible way, starting with the most elementary introduction to the problems and leading all the way to the discussion of new trends and challenges concerning the subject. In all presentations, a nice balance between mathematics and biology is kept, a very welcome feature facilitated by the mixed background of the authors.
The book is suitable as a textbook for both undergraduate and graduate courses ... . The material is presented in an interesting, sometimes even intriguing manner, and it is supported with valuable exercises, projects, and open questions allowing for hands-on experiences. Students can learn a fair amount of both biology and mathematics from this text and see how these two disciplines come together to shed light on understanding one of the biggest problems and challenges of our century: cancer."
-Professor Urszula Ledzewicz, Southern Illinois University, Edwardsville, USA, and Lodz University of Technology, Poland
