Monday, April 4 (notice the non-standard day)

Speaker: Kristin Rae Swanson, Department of Pathology, Harbor view
 Medical Center, University of Washington

Title: Application of mathematical modeling for brain tumor growth and 
invasion

Abstract: Gliomas account for over half of all primary brain tumors and have
been studied extensively for decades.  Even with increasingly sophisticated
medical imaging technologies, gliomas remain uniformly fatal lesions.  A 
significant gap remains between the goal of designing effective therapy and 
the present understanding of the dynamics of glioma progression. It has  become
increasingly clear that, along with the proliferative potential of these
neoplasms, it is the subclinically diffuse invasion of gliomas that most
contributes to their resistance to treatment.  That is, the inevitable 
recurrence of these tumors is the result of diffusely invaded but practically
invisible tumor cells peripheral to the abnormal signal on medical imaging
and to the limits of surgical, radiological and chemical treatments. In this
presentation, I will demonstrate how quantitative modeling can not  only shed
light on the spatio-temporal growth of gliomas but also can have specific 
clinical application in real patients.  Integration of our quantitative model
with the T1-weighted and T2-weighted MR imaging characteristics of gliomas can
provide estimates of the extent of invasion  of glioma cells peripheral to the
imaging abnormality.  Further model analysis reveals remarkable concordance
with patient survival rates. In summary, although current imaging techniques
remain woefully inadequate in  accurately resolving the true extent of gliomas,
quantitative modeling provides a new approach for the dynamic assessment of
real patients and helps direct the way to novel therapeutic approaches.