Branching Process Models of Cancer

Richard Durrett is mathematics professor at Duke University, USA. He is the author of 8 books, over 200 journal articles and has supervised more than 40 Ph.D. students. Most of his current research concerns the applications of probability to biology: ecology, genetics, and most recently cancer.

• Multistage Theory of Cancer.- Mathematical Overview.- Branching Process Results.- Time for Z_0 to Reach Size M.- Time Until the First Type 1.- Mutation Before Detection?.- Accumulation of Neutral Mutations.- Properties of the Gamma Function.- Growth of Z_1(t).- Movements of Z_1(t).- Luria-Delbruck Distributions.- Number of Type 1's at Time T_M.- Gwoth of Z_k(t).- Transitions Between Waves.- Time to the First Type \tau_k, k \ge 2.- Application: Metastasis.- Application: Ovarian Cancer.- Application: Intratumor Heterogeneity.

"It provides a survey of cancer modeling using multitype branching processes. ... the text should be accessible for graduate students in mathematics and biology who are familiar with Poisson processes and continuous-time Markov chains." (Matthias Meiners, zbMATH 1328.92004, 2016)