Mathematical Oncology

Cancer is not just a biological problem. It is also a mathematical one. Tumours grow, compete for oxygen, respond to drugs, and adapt to stress — all in ways that can be described, modelled, and predicted using mathematics. Mathematical oncology is the field that does exactly this. What does a mathematical oncologist actually do? At its core, mathematical oncology uses equations to describe how cancer behaves. Just as engineers use mathematics to predict how a bridge will hold weight, or meteorologists use it to forecast weather, mathematical oncologists use it to predict how a tumour will grow, shrink, or resist treatment. ...

Cancer is not just a biological problem. It is also a mathematical one. Tumours grow, compete for oxygen, respond to drugs, and adapt to stress — all in ways that can be described, modelled, and predicted using mathematics. Mathematical oncology is the field that does exactly this. What does a mathematical oncologist actually do? At its core, mathematical oncology uses equations to describe how cancer behaves. Just as engineers use mathematics to predict how a bridge will hold weight, or meteorologists use it to forecast weather, mathematical oncologists use it to predict how a tumour will grow, shrink, or resist treatment. ...

I was supposed to be a doctor. I grew up in northern Nigeria, moving from state to state as my father's banking career took our family across the region. It was a childhood of constant adjustment — new schools, new friends, new cities — but mathematics was always the same everywhere I went. Reliable, consistent, and somehow mine. When I was admitted to Bayero University Kano to study medicine, it felt like the natural destination. Medicine was prestigious, purposeful, the kind of career that made sense to everyone around me. I had worked hard to get there. ...