
Guillermo Lorenzo Gómez- Doctor of Engineering
- Ramón y Cajal Fellow at Universidade da Coruña
Guillermo Lorenzo Gómez
- Doctor of Engineering
- Ramón y Cajal Fellow at Universidade da Coruña
About
56
Publications
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Introduction
I am a Ramon y Cajal Fellow in the Group of Numerical Methods in Engineering at the Department of Mathemtics of the University of A Coruña (Spain). My investigation focuses on the development of biology-based mathematical models and computational methods to predict cancer growth and treatment response on a personalized basis. I am also interested in similar applications to other diseases, as well as in the development of novel computational methods for accurate and efficient model simulations.
Current institution
Additional affiliations
Education
November 2014 - June 2018
October 2013 - July 2014
September 2007 - July 2013
Publications
Publications (56)
The Gleason score (GS) is a fundamental predictor of prostate cancer (PCa) behavior and cancer-specific survival. The GS is determined by analyzing the tumor cell architecture in tissue samples. As PCa exhibits significant heterogeneity within any single tumor, whole-prostate tissue specimens enable a comprehensive assessment of the tumor’s GS. How...
Given the enormous output and pace of development of artificial intelligence (AI) methods in medical imaging, it can be challenging to identify the true success stories to determine the state-of-the-art of the field. This report seeks to provide the magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) community with an initial guide into the major areas in which the m...
Despite advances in methods to interrogate tumor biology, the observational and population-based approach of classical cancer research and clinical oncology does not enable anticipation of tumor outcomes to hasten the discovery of cancer mechanisms and personalize disease management. To address these limitations, individualized cancer forecasts hav...
Despite advances in methods to interrogate tumor biology, the observational and population-based approach of classical cancer research and clinical oncology does not enable anticipation of tumor outcomes to hasten the discovery of cancer mechanisms and personalize disease management. To address these limitations, individualized cancer forecasts hav...
The detection of recurrent prostate cancer following exter- nal beam radiotherapy relies on persistent increases in serum prostate- specific antigen (PSA) levels. However, this biochemical recurrence may take place after an extended period, delaying secondary treatment for patients with relapsing tumours. Recent research has identified situa- tions...
The development of mathematical models of cancer informed by time-resolved measurements has enabled personalised predictions of tumour growth and treatment response. However, frequent cancer monitoring is rare, and many tumours are treated soon after diagnosis with limited data. To improve the predictive capabilities of cancer models, we investigat...
Despite the remarkable advances in cancer diagnosis, treatment, and management over the past decade, malignant tumors remain a major public health problem. Further progress in combating cancer may be enabled by personalizing the delivery of therapies according to the predicted response for each individual patient. The design of personalized therapi...
Low and intermediate-risk prostate cancer (PCa) patients are eligible for active surveillance (AS), whereby treatment is delayed until progression to higher-risk disease is detected via longitudinal multiparametric magnetic resonance imaging (mpMRI) scans, biopsies, and prostate specific antigen (PSA) tests. However, AS relies on a population-based...
Active surveillance (AS) is a suitable management option for newly diagnosed prostate cancer, which usually presents low to intermediate clinical risk. Patients enrolled in AS have their tumor monitored via longitudinal multiparametric MRI (mpMRI), PSA tests, and biopsies. Hence, treatment is prescribed when these tests identify progression to high...
Tumor heterogeneity contributes significantly to chemoresistance, a leading cause of treatment failure. To better personalize therapies, it is essential to develop tools capable of identifying and predicting intra- and inter-tumor heterogeneities. Biology-inspired mathematical models are capable of attacking this problem, but tumor heterogeneity is...
The heterogeneity inherent in cancer means that even a successful clinical trial merely results in a therapeutic regimen that achieves, on average, a positive result only in a subset of patients. The only way to optimize an intervention for an individual patient is to reframe their treatment as their own, personalized trial. Toward this goal, we fo...
We develop a methodology to create data-driven predictive digital twins for optimal risk-aware clinical decision-making. We illustrate the methodology as an enabler for an anticipatory personalized treatment that accounts for uncertainties in the underlying tumor biology in high-grade gliomas, where heterogeneity in the response to standard-of-care...
Despite the remarkable advances in cancer diagnosis, treatment, and management that have occurred over the past decade, malignant tumors remain a major public health problem. Further progress in combating cancer may be enabled by personalizing the delivery of therapies according to the predicted response for each individual patient. The design of p...
Despite the remarkable advances in cancer diagnosis, treatment, and management that have occurred over the past decade, malignant tumors remain a major public health problem. Further progress in combating cancer may be enabled by personalizing the delivery of therapies according to the predicted response for each individual patient. The design of p...
We develop a methodology to create data-driven predictive digital twins for optimal risk-aware clinical decision-making. We illustrate the methodology as an enabler for an anticipatory personalized treatment that accounts for uncertainties in the underlying tumor biology in high-grade gliomas, where heterogeneity in the response to standard-of-care...
Neoadjuvant chemotherapy (NAC) is a standard-of-care treatment for locally advanced triple negative breast cancer (TNBC) before surgery. The early assessment of TNBC response to NAC would enable an oncologist to adapt the therapeutic plan of a non-responding patient, thereby improving treatment outcomes while preventing unnecessary toxicities. To t...
The rapid spread of the numerous outbreaks of the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic has fueled interest in mathematical models designed to understand and predict infectious disease spread, with the ultimate goal of contributing to the decision making of public health authorities. Here, we propose a computational pipeline that dynamically...
Active surveillance (AS) is an established clinical strategy for the management of prostate cancer (PCa) exhibiting low to intermediate risk. In AS, treatment is delayed until progression to higher-risk disease is detected during the close monitoring of patients via longitudinal multiparametric magnetic resonance imaging (mpMRI) scans, biopsies, an...
Neoadjuvant chemotherapy (NAC) is a standard-of-care treatment for locally advanced triple negative breast cancer (TNBC) before surgery. The early assessment of TNBC response to NAC would enable an oncologist to adapt the therapeutic plan of a non-responding patient, thereby improving treatment outcomes while preventing unnecessary toxicities. To t...
The rapid spread of the numerous outbreaks of the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic has fueled interest in mathematical models designed to understand and predict infectious disease spread, with the ultimate goal of contributing to the decision-making of public health authorities. Here, we propose a computational pipeline that dynamically...
Clinical management of cancer has continuously evolved for several decades. Biochemical, molecular and genomics approaches have brought and still bring numerous insights into cancerous diseases. It is now accepted that some phenomena, allowed by favorable biological conditions, emerge via mechanical signaling at the cellular scale and via mechanica...
The detection of prostate cancer recurrence after external beam radiotherapy relies on the measurement of a sustained rise of serum prostate-specific antigen (PSA). However, this biochemical relapse may take years to occur, thereby delaying the delivery of a secondary treatment to patients with recurring tumors. To address this issue, we propose to...
As indicated throughout this chapter, there is a constant effort to move to more sensitive, specific, and quantitative methods for characterizing breast tissue via magnetic resonance imaging (MRI). In the present chapter, we focus on six emerging techniques that seek to quantitatively interrogate the physiological and biochemical properties of the...
The development of chemoresistance remains a significant cause of treatment failure in breast cancer. We posit that a mathematical understanding of chemoresistance could assist in developing successful treatment strategies. Towards that end, we have developed a model that describes the cytotoxic effects of the standard chemotherapeutic drug doxorub...
Current clinical decision-making in oncology relies on averages of large patient populations to both assess tumour status and treatment outcomes. However, cancers exhibit an inherent evolving heterogeneity that requires an individual approach based on rigorous and precise predictions of cancer growth and treatment response. To this end, we advocate...
The computer simulation of organ-scale biomechanistic models of cancer personalized via routinely collected clinical and imaging data enables to obtain patient-specific predictions of tumor growth and treatment response over the anatomy of the patient's affected organ.
However, the simulation of the underlying spatiotemporal models can entail a pro...
Clinical management of cancer has continuously evolved for several decades. Biochemical, molecular, and genomics approaches have brought and still bring numerous insights into cancerous diseases. It is now accepted that some phenomena, allowed by favorable biological conditions, emerge via mechanical signaling at the cellular scale and via mechanic...
Active surveillance (AS) is a suitable management option for many newly-diagnosed prostate cancer (PCa) cases, which usually exhibit low to intermediate clinical risk. In AS, patients are closely monitored via multiparametric magnetic resonance imaging (mpMRI), prostate-specific antigen tests, and biopsies until these reveal an increase in PCa risk...
Digital twins employ mathematical and computational models to virtually represent a physical object (e.g., planes and human organs), predict the behavior of the object, and enable decision-making to optimize the future behavior of the object. While digital twins have been widely used in engineering for decades, their applications to oncology are on...
Objective:
This study establishes a fluid dynamics model personalized with patient-specific imaging data to optimize neoadjuvant therapy (i.e., doxorubicin) protocols for breast cancers.
Methods:
Ten patients recruited at the University of Chicago were included in this study. Quantitative dynamic contrast-enhanced and diffusion weighted magnetic...
The detection of prostate cancer recurrence after external beam radiotherapy relies on the measurement of a sustained rise of serum prostate-specific antigen (PSA). However, this biochemical relapse may take years to occur, thereby delaying the delivery of a secondary treatment to patients with recurring tumors. To address this issue, here we propo...
The computer simulation of organ-scale biomechanistic models of cancer personalized via routinely collected clinical and imaging data enables to obtain patient-specific predictions of tumor growth and treatment response over the anatomy of the patient's affected organ. These patient-specific computational forecasts have been regarded as a promising...
The early assessment of neoadjuvant therapy (NAT) response in triple-negative breast cancer (TNBC) would enable a treating oncologist to adjust a therapeutic plan of a non-responding patient, and thereby enhance outcomes while preventing unnecessary toxicities. To address this challenge, we propose leveraging personalized, in silico forecasts of tu...
The development of chemoresistance remains a significant cause of treatment failure in breast cancer. We posit that a mathematical understanding of chemoresistance could assist in developing successful treatment strategies. Towards that end, we have developed a model that describes the effects of the standard chemotherapeutic drug doxorubicin on th...
Tumor-associated vasculature is responsible for the delivery of nutrients, removal of waste, and allowing growth beyond 2–3 mm3. Additionally, the vascular network, which is changing in both space and time, fundamentally influences tumor response to both systemic and radiation therapy. Thus, a robust understanding of vascular dynamics is necessary...
Prostate cancer can be lethal in advanced stages, for which chemotherapy may become the only viable therapeutic option. While there is no clear clinical management strategy fitting all patients, cytotoxic chemotherapy with docetaxel is currently regarded as the gold standard. However, tumors may regain activity after treatment conclusion and become...
Current clinical decision-making in oncology relies on averages of large patient populations to both assess tumor status and treatment outcomes. However, cancers exhibit an inherent evolving heterogeneity that requires an individual approach based on rigorous and precise predictions of cancer growth and treatment response. To this end, we advocate...
The early determination of response to neoadjuvant therapy (NAT) in triple-negative breast cancer would enable the treating oncologist to adapt the therapeutic regimen of a non-responding patient (e.g., by changing dosage, dose schedule, prescribed drugs), and thereby improve treatment outcomes while avoiding unnecessary toxicities. To address this...
We provide an overview on the use of biological assays to calibrate and initialize mechanism-based models of cancer phenomena. Although artificial intelligence methods currently dominate the landscape in computational oncology, mathematical models that seek to explicitly incorporate biological mechanisms into their formalism are of increasing inter...
The outbreak of COVID-19 in 2020 has led to a surge in interest in the research of the mathematical modeling of epidemics. Many of the introduced models are so-called compartmental models, in which the total quantities characterizing a certain system may be decomposed into two (or more) species that are distributed into two (or more) homogeneous un...
According to the American Cancer Society, prostate cancer (PCa) is the most common newly-diagnosed cancer and the second leading cancer-related cause of death among men in the US in 2019. The current clinical protocols of PCa are based on two key strategies: regular screening of men over fifty and patient triaging in risk groups. Prostatic tumors a...
Chemotherapy is a common treatment for advanced prostate cancer. The standard approach relies on cytotoxic drugs, which aim at inhibiting proliferation and promoting cell death. Advanced prostatic tumors are known to rely on angiogenesis, i.e. the growth of local microvasculature via chemical signaling produced by the tumor. Thus, several clinical...
Prostate cancer can be lethal in advanced stages, for which chemotherapy may become the only viable therapeutic option. While there is no clear clinical management strategy fitting all patients, cytotoxic chemotherapy with docetaxel is currently regarded as the gold standard. However, tumors may regain activity after treatment conclusion and become...
We present an early version of a Susceptible-Exposed-Infected-Recovered-Deceased (SEIRD) mathematical model based on partial differential equations coupled with a heterogeneous diffusion model. The model describes the spatio-temporal spread of the COVID-19 pandemic, and aims to capture dynamics also based on human habits and geographical features....
We present an early version of a Susceptible-Exposed-Infected-Recovered-Deceased (SEIRD) mathematical model based on partial differential equations coupled with a heterogeneous diffusion model. The model describes the spatio-temporal spread of the COVID-19 pandemic, and aims to capture dynamics also based on human habits and geographical features....
5α-reductase inhibitors are regarded as a promising chemoprevention strategy to reduce the incidence and delay the progression of prostate cancer. Landmark clinical trials have shown the chemopreventive potential of these drugs, but they appear to be mostly effective in mild tumors and have also been correlated with a higher prevalence of advanced...
The overall goal of this study is to employ quantitative magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) data to constrain a patient-specific, computational fluid dynamics (CFD) model of blood flow and interstitial transport in breast cancer. We develop image processing methodologies to generate tumor-related vasculatureinterstitium geometry and realistic materia...
External beam radiation therapy is a widespread treatment for prostate cancer. The ensuing patient follow-up is based on the evolution of the prostate-specific antigen (PSA). Serum levels of PSA decay due to the radiation-induced death of tumour cells and cancer recurrence usually manifest as a rising PSA. The current definition of biochemical rela...
Cytotoxic chemotherapy is a common treatment for advanced prostate cancer. These tumors are also known to rely on angiogenesis, i.e., the growth of local microvasculature via chemical signaling produced by the tumor. Thus, several clinical studies have been investigating antiangiogenic therapy for advanced prostate cancer, either as monotherapy or...
Significance
Benign prostatic hyperplasia (BPH) is a common disease in aging men that causes the prostate to enlarge progressively. Men with larger prostates tend to harbor prostatic tumors with more favorable features. The underlying mechanisms that explain this interaction between BPH and prostate cancer (PCa) are largely unknown. Here, we propos...
Moving interface problems are ubiquitous in science and engineering. To develop an accurate and efficient methodology for this class of problems, we present algorithms for local h-adaptivity of hierarchical B-splines to be utilized in isogeometric analysis. We extend Bézier projection, an efficient quadrature-free local projection technique, to the...
Significance
We perform a tissue-scale, personalized computer simulation of prostate cancer (PCa) growth in a patient, based on prostatic anatomy extracted from medical images. To do so, we propose a mathematical model for the growth of PCa. The model includes an equation for the reference biomarker of PCa: the prostate-specific antigen (PSA). Henc...