The Modeling of Cancer Progression and Immunotherapy

December 12 to December 16, 2005

at the

American Institute of Mathematics, Palo Alto, California

organized by

Lisette de Pillis, Ami Radunskaya, and Charles Wiseman

This workshop, sponsored by AIM and the NSF, will bring together a multidisciplinary collection of experts to work on refining mathematical models of cancer growth, therapy delivery, and cancer interaction with the immune system.

The main topics for the workshop are

Development of a list of clearly identifiable, practical and testable hypotheses that take into account the current state of the art in cancer assays and treatments.
Determination of key elements that must be included in a realistic model of cancer growth and elements that will allow for the simulation of various treatment strategies.
Determination of effective cancer model validation techniques, which includes incorporating current understanding of assays and clinical trial data.
Determination of how the mathematical optimal control problem should be formulated for improving treatment protocols.

A central goal of the workshop will be to combine state of the art knowledge of immune-related treatment strategies with mathematical models that can reflect realistic qualitative and quantitative behavior of cancer growth and response to treatment. Using mathematical optimal control techniques applied to models that incorporate current understanding of testing and treatment options available, we aim to initiate the development of new candidate treatment protocols that are optimized in terms of dosage, delivery site, and treatment schedules.

The workshop will differ from typical conferences in some regards. Participants will be invited to suggest open problems and questions before the workshop begins, and these will be posted on the workshop website. These include specific problems on which there is hope of making some progress during the workshop, as well as more ambitious problems which may influence the future activity of the field. Lectures at the workshop will be focused on familiarizing the participants with the background material leading up to specific problems, and the schedule will include discussion and working sessions.

Space and funding is available for a few more participants. If you would like to participate, please apply by filling out the on-line form no later than September 12, 2005. Applications are open to all, and we especially encourage women, underrepresented minorities, junior mathematicians, and researchers from primarily undergraduate institutions to apply.

Before submitting an application, please read the ARCC policies concerning participation and financial support for participants.

For more information email workshops@aimath.org

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