Future students

Collaborations between mathematicians, cancer biologists and clinical oncologists enable both rapid cost-effective testing of cancer drug combinations, and deeper understanding of cancer drug resistance. (Shutterstock)

by Mohammad Kohandel

Applied mathematics can be a powerful tool in helping predict the genesis and evolution of different types of cancers, a study from the University of Waterloo has found.

The study used a form of mathematical analysis called evolutionary dynamics to look at how malignant mutations evolve in both stem and non-stem cells in colorectal and intestinal cancers.