Next BBDG Seminar: "Scaling laws in cancer and some clinical applications"

🗓️ January, Wed 21, 2026, 12:00h

🗣️ Víctor M. Pérez García (Laboratorio de Oncología Matemática, Universidad de Castilla-La Mancha, Ciudad Real)

📍Félix M. Goñi Atrium (Instituto Biofisika)

📄 "Scaling laws in cancer and some clinical applications"

Abstract:

In this talk, I will present recent findings showing that cancer exhibits unexpected metabolic scaling laws that relate tumor activity to size, clearly departing from the standard allometric patterns typically observed in animals. I will discuss how these altered scaling laws shape the macroscopically observed growth dynamics of tumors, leading to an explosive growth regime that we have validated using human data. This distinctive behavior enables the clinical discrimination between true relapsing lesions and post-treatment pseudo-progressions. I will also show how analyzing these macroscopic dynamics provides insights into the underlying molecular evolutionary processes of the tumor. Moreover, the metabolic scenarios explored offer indications on how nutritional interventions might be used as preventive or adjuvant strategies in cancer. Finally, I will discuss how the spatial distribution of metabolic activity within tumors can be leveraged to define a novel biomarker, recently validated in several clinical trials.

Short bio:

I am an applied mathematician with background in Physics. After an initial career in mathematical physics studying nonlinear optical systems ind ultracold quantum systems, my research is now centered on the use of mathematical modelling in Medicine. I lead the Mathematical Oncology Laboratory at the University of Castilla-La Mancha. I am vicepresident of the European Society for Mathematical and Theoretical Biology (2024-). My research has had a high scientific impact with more than 13500 citations in Google Scholar (h-index = 57). I am icluded in the Stanford list of top 2% world scientists. I am editor in chief of the journal "Physica D: Nonlinear phenomena" (2021-). Since 2023 I am the coordinator of the "Mathematics" (MTM) panel at AEl.