$50,000 prize will fund cancer research
By Jim Flint for Ashland.news
Cancer patients may soon see safer, more effective treatments thanks to groundbreaking research by a team that included Dr. Dawn Lemanne of Oregon Integrative Oncology in Ashland.
Her team won first prize and a $50,000 grant at an international mathematical oncology competition in early November at Moffitt Cancer Center in Tampa, Florida. Their predictive modeling project aims to reduce treatment toxicity and enhance patient outcomes.
Lemanne, 69, served as a senior member on her team, competing against teams from leading cancer research institutions worldwide.
Oregon Integrative Oncology at 935 Siskiyou Blvd. is a solo practice, one of only a handful in the United States. Lemanne also is an assistant professor at the University of Arizona School of Medicine, where she helps train future integrative medicine physicians.
The November competition was the 12th annual such event hosted by the mathematical oncology department at Moffitt, one of the nation’s top cancer research centers. Potential participants from around the world, representing various disciplines, submit applications for the competition. From those, about 70 individuals are invited to join the event. They are divided into five teams, each designed to be interdisciplinary.
The competition’s goal is for each team to design a research project addressing a central theme.
Fighting toxicity
“This year’s theme was ‘toxicity in cancer treatment,’” Lemanne said. “As a clinician deeply interested in bridging mathematics and oncology, I found the competition to be an invaluable opportunity to collaborate across disciplines and tackle some of the most pressing challenges of cancer care.”
The competition was conducted as an intensive, in-person marathon of sorts.
“Over five days, our team worked from morning to late into the night,” Lemanne said.
Besides Lemanne, team leaders included a distinguished group of experts. Among them were mathematician Maximilian Strobl, Ph.D., Cleveland Clinic; gynecological oncologist Erin George, M.D., Ph.D., Moffitt Cancer Center; immunologist Paulo Rodriguez, Ph.D., Moffitt Cancer Center; and computational biologist Ryan Schenk, Ph.D., Stanford University.
Their focus was to conceptualize and develop mathematical models that address cancer treatment toxicity while maintaining or improving efficacy.
“We iterated on our models, tested them for feasibility, and then presented our results to a panel of judges on the final day of the competition,” she said.
Lifelong fascination
Lemanne’s interest in mathematical oncology stems from a lifelong fascination with mathematical biology and its ability to provide unique insights into complex adaptive systems that make up biological organisms — and cancers as well.
She has collaborated with Moffitt mathematical oncologists to apply tumor dynamics in clinical settings.
“Specifically, I’ve worked on using adaptive therapy schedules to manage advanced cancers, particularly in cases where traditional therapies are not curative,” she said.
In addition to being a significant focus of her academic collaborations, mathematical oncology also informs how she approaches difficult cases in her clinical practice.
Winning the competition is a meaningful milestone for Lemanne.
“It represents the culmination of years of effort to integrate mathematical modeling with patient care,” she said. “And it validates the importance of interdisciplinary collaboration and innovative approaches to cancer research. It reinforces my commitment to using science and teamwork to tackle complex challenges in oncology.”
The team noted that cellular aging, or senescence, plays a role in predicting and preventing toxicity during cancer treatments. There is an accumulation of damage within cells over time, making them less capable of repairing themselves, and more prone to stress-induced toxicity.
“By studying the interplay between treatment-induced cellular aging and toxicity, we can design therapies that mitigate these effects, preserving both healthy tissue and quality of life during treatment,” Lemanne said.
Gut check
The team’s work on mathematical modeling will help optimize dosing levels for treatment of ovarian cancer, and will lead to a better understanding of the role of gut microbiota in cancer treatment outcomes.
“Our models analyze how variations in gut microbial populations correlate with treatment outcomes and toxicity,” she said. “By identifying patterns, we can predict which patients may benefit from interventions like prebiotics, probiotics, or dietary modifications to enhance treatment efficacy and reduce side effects.”
The $50,000 grant will be used to implement and validate the team’s proposed model in a clinical or preclinical setting.
“The funding will allow us to gather real-world data, refine our mathematical models, and potentially translate our findings into clinical trials,” she said. “It’s an essential step toward making cancer treatments safer and more effective for patients.”
Lemanne is a Stanford-trained, board-certified oncologist. She founded Oregon Integrative Oncology in Ashland in 2014. She first came to the Rogue Valley in 1997 to work in another oncology practice in Medford. She left in 2008 to pursue other interests before returning to Ashland.
Lemanne majored in biophysics at the University of California, Berkeley, graduating with academic distinction. She entered medical school at UC San Francisco, where she was named a Regents’ Scholar. After earning her M.D. degree and serving an internship and residency at Henry Ford Hospital in Detroit, she trained in medical oncology at Stanford. Along the way, she has earned two additional advanced degrees. One is in public health from UC Berkeley and the other in science writing from Johns Hopkins University.
For information about Lemanne’s practice, go to oregonio.com.
Freelance writer Jim Flint is a retired newspaper publisher and editor. Email him at [email protected].
