“You have enemies? Good. That means you’ve stood up for something, sometime in your life.” Winston Churchill.
My research focuses on mathematical models of lung cancer screening and bioinformatics.
I was able to demonstrate that the tumor size at stage transition for aggressive lung cancers is smaller than previous studies indicate: as small as 10 mm for male smokers and 15 mm for female smokers, underscoring the aggressive nature of lung cancer and the difficulties of early detection. I further demonstrated that several mathematical fallacies persistent in the literature have precluded these estimates, despite their compatibility with data over a wide range of lung cancer data sets. A summary of my findings are presented here:
Debunking Mathematical Fallacies in Models of Lung Cancer Screening
My current research goals are:
- Assess screening effectiveness among various lung cancer screening protocols in light of a mathematical model for the underlying natural history of lung cancer in which the size at stage transition is small.
- Examine estimates of mathematical models of the underlying natural history of breast cancer for accuracy across a range of data sets.
- Consider ways that single cell sequencing data may improve early detection of lung cancer, in particular with respect to the resolution of small nodules.
Selected First and Sole-Author Publications:
Goldwasser DL. Estimation of the Tumor Size at Cure Threshold among Aggressive non-small cell lung cancers (NSCLCs): Evidence from the Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results (SEER) program and the National Lung Screening Trial (NLST). Int J. Cancer. 2017; 140(6): 1280-1292.
Goldwasser DL, Kimmel M. Small Median Tumor Diameter at Cure Threshold (\textless 20 mm) among Aggressive Non-Small Cell Lung Cancers in Male Smokers Predicts Both Chest X-Ray and CT Screening Outcomes in a Novel Simulation Framework. Int J. Cancer. 2013; 132(1): 189-197.
Goldwasser DL, Kimmel M. Modeling Excess Lung Cancer Risk among Screened Arm Participants in the Mayo Lung Project. Cancer. 2010; 116(1):122-131.