Talk by Jasmine Foo (University of Minnesota)
Date and Time: January 16, 10:00 AM in AP&M 6402
Title: A mathematical model of the cancer field effect
Abstract:
In this talk I will present results on a stochastic model of spatial
evolution on a lattice, motivated by the process of carcinogenesis
(or cancer initiation) from healthy epithelial tissue. Cancer often
arises through a sequence of genetic alterations or mutations. Each
of these alterations may confer a fitness advantage to the cell,
resulting in a clonal expansion. To model this we will consider a
generalization of the biased voter process which incorporates
successive mutations modulating fitness. Under this model we will
investigate a possible mechanism for the phenomenon of "field
cancerization," which refers to the clinical observation that
multiple independent primary tumors often arise in the same region of
tissue. (joint work w/ K. Leder, M. Ryser, and R. Durrett)