Cancer Data/Health Data Analysis Group

 (HealthMath.net / CancerMath.net / PreventativeHealthMath.net)

MGH

Medical Director:      Jerry Younger MD
Scientific Director:    James Michaelson PhD
Surgical Director: Barbara Smith MD PhD

 Harvard

Staff:
Leon Chen
Niraj Nathan
Mathew Nolan
Mathew Pappas
Priya Ranade
Christiana Toomey

Gillette Center for Breast Cancer, MGH Cancer Center
Departments of Surgery, Medicine, and Pathology Massachusetts General Hospital
Harvard Medical School
 Boston MA USA

The work of our group concerns that assembly of data, and the development of improved mathematical methods, for predicting outcome for cancer and other diseases. 

We are also interested in using mathematics to learn how to most effectively use preventative medical treatments, such as cancer screening, immunization, and hypertension control, to reduce the burden of preventable disease and death.

A few of the project of our group concern:

  1. The analysis of cancer outcome.
  2. The development and testing of a general mathematical theory of cancer.
  3. The development of improved mathematical methods for predicting the risk of cancer death and other manifestations of cancer spread (such as nodal involvement and local recurrence) and the impact of various treatment on the risk of death.
  4. The development of web-calculators that can be widely used by medical professionals to better predict cancer outcome and to aid those medical professionals in reaching the best possible selection of treatment choices for each patient.
  5. The analysis of the cancer hazard function, the period of time that patients can remain alive with metastatic disease, and the development of a rational basis for identifying the most effective way to use chemotherapy to extent this period of time.
  6. The analysis of second cancers and cancer recurrence, and their impact on cancer lethality.
  7. The creation of large databases on patients with cancer:
    1. A database on all of the breast cancer patients seen at the Partners Hospitals over the past 40+ years
    2. A database on all of the breast cancer patients taken from the SEER National Dataset.
    3. A database on all of the melanoma patients seen at the Partners Hospitals over the past 40+ years
    4. A database on all of the melanoma patients taken from the SEER National Dataset
    5. A database on all of the patients with hematological cancers seen at the MGH over the past 40+ years
    6. A database on all of the patients with hematological cancers in the SEER National Dataset.

Databases of other cancer patients are now in the planning stages.

  1. The analysis of the impact of surgical treatment on outcome of patients presenting with metastatic disease.
  2. The analysis of the impact of ordinary preventative medical interventions (cancer screening, immunization, hypertension testing and treatment, hyperlipidemia testing and treatment, etc.) on the extension of life.
  3. The development of web-based calculators for gauging the impact of preventative medical interventions, in terms of on the extension of life, and presenting this information to patients and medical professionals in prioritized form, so as to increase the use and health impact of these interventions.

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Copyright © 2007 James Michaelson, PhD

Massachusetts General Hospital Center for Quantitative Medicine
Massachusetts General Hospital
Harvard Medical School
Boston MA USA
 Harvard University