Jeffrey West, PhD

Studying the dynamics of cell-cell interactions that influence tumor evolution, heterogeneity, and treatment resistance.

Associations

• Integrated Mathematical Oncology
• Malignant Hematology
• Cancer Biology & Evolution Program

Education & Training

Graduate:

• University of Southern California, PhD - Aerospace & Mechanical Engineering

Fellowship:

• H. Lee Moffitt Cancer Center & Research Institute - Integrated Mathematical Oncology

The goal of Dr. West’s research group is to aid in targeting treatment resistance by constructing mathematical models of 1) tumor evolution and heterogeneity and 2) evolutionary-minded treatment strategies, employing techniques such as agent-based modeling, dose response convexity analysis (second-order effects), and evolutionary game theory. These methods are broadly applicable to many cancer types, but recent publications have focused on applications to breast cancer and hematologic malignancies.

• Arabzadeh M, Tang YH, Colin-Leitzinger C, Marzban S, Walgenbach D, Morganti S, Mahaganapathy V, Harper E, Teng M, Kresovich JK, Washington I, Parsons HA, Garber JE, West J, Ganesan S, Khiabanian H, Gillis N. Clonal Hematopoiesis Dynamics and Evolutionary Fitness During Cancer Treatment Impact Clinical Outcomes. medRxiv. 2025 Sep. Pubmedid: 40950448. Pmcid: PMC12424905.
• Luddy KA, West J, Robertson-Tessi M, Desai B, Ojeda A, Newman H, Estrella V, Bursell TM, Barrett S, O'Sullivan J, Marignol L, Gatenby RA, Brown JS, Anderson AR, O'Farrelly C. Evolutionary Double-Bind Treatment Using Radiation Therapy and Natural Killer Cell-Based Immunotherapy in Prostate Cancer. Int J Radiat Oncol Biol Phys. 2025 Sep. Pubmedid: 40998270.
• West J, Desai B, Strobl M, Gallaher J, Robertson-Tessi M, Marusyk A, Anderson ARA. Evolutionary antifragile therapy. bioRxiv. 2025 Sep. Pubmedid: 41000654. Pmcid: PMC12458151.
• Scibilia KR, Gallagher K, Masud MA, Robertson-Tessi M, Gatenbee CD, West J, Llamas P, Prabhakaran S, Gallaher J, Anderson ARA. Mathematical Oncology: How Modeling Is Transforming Clinical Decision Making. Cancer Res. 2025 Oct. Pubmedid: 41105675.
• Park MA, Whelan CJ, Ahmed S, Boeringer T, Brown J, Carson TL, Crowder SL, Gage K, Gregg C, Jeong DK, Jim HSL, Judge AR, Mason TM, Parker N, Pillai S, Qayyum A, Rajasekhara S, Rasool G, Tinsley SM, Schabath MB, Stewart P, West J, McDonald P, Permuth JB. Correction: Park et al. Defining and Addressing Research Priorities in Cancer Cachexia through Transdisciplinary Collaboration. Cancers 2024, 16, 2364. Cancers (Basel). 2025 Mar.17(6). Pubmedid: 40149388. Pmcid: PMC11941415.
• Marzban S, Srivastava S, Kartika S, Bravo R, Safriel R, Zarski A, Anderson ARA, Chung CH, Amelio AL, West J. Spatial interactions modulate tumor growth and immune infiltration. NPJ Syst Biol Appl. 2024 Sep.10(1):106. Pubmedid: 39349537. Pmcid: PMC11442770.
• Emond R, West J, Grolmusz V, Cosgrove P, Nath A, Anderson ARA, Bild AH. A novel combination therapy for ER+ breast cancer suppresses drug resistance via an evolutionary double-bind. bioRxiv. 2024 Sep. Pubmedid: 39282402. Pmcid: PMC11398327.
• West J, Marzban S, Srivast S, Kartika S, Bravo R, Safriel R, Zarski A, Anderson A, Chung C, Amelio A. Spatial interactions modulate tumor growth and immune infiltration. Res Sq. 2024 May. Pubmedid: 38826398. Pmcid: PMC11142313.
• Marzban S, Srivastava S, Kartika S, Bravo R, Safriel R, Zarski A, Anderson A, Chung CH, Amelio AL, West J. Spatial interactions modulate tumor growth and immune infiltration. bioRxiv. 2024 Mar. Pubmedid: 38370722. Pmcid: PMC10871273.
• Pierik L, McDonald P, Anderson ARA, West J. Second-Order Effects of Chemotherapy Pharmacodynamics and Pharmacokinetics on Tumor Regression and Cachexia. Bull Math Biol. 2024 Mar.86(5):47. Pubmedid: 38546759.
• Strobl MAR, Martin AL, West J, Gallaher J, Robertson-Tessi M, Gatenby R, Wenham R, Maini PK, Damaghi M, Anderson ARA. To modulate or to skip: De-escalating PARP inhibitor maintenance therapy in ovarian cancer using adaptive therapy. Cell Syst. 2024 Jun.15(6):510-525.e6. Pubmedid: 38772367. Pmcid: PMC11190943.
• Park MA, Whelan CJ, Ahmed S, Boeringer T, Brown J, Crowder SL, Gage K, Gregg C, Jeong DK, Jim HSL, Judge AR, Mason TM, Parker N, Pillai S, Qayyum A, Rajasekhara S, Rasool G, Tinsley SM, Schabath MB, Stewart P, West J, McDonald P, Permuth JB. Defining and Addressing Research Priorities in Cancer Cachexia through Transdisciplinary Collaboration. Cancers (Basel). 2024 Jun.16(13). Pubmedid: 39001427. Pmcid: PMC11240731.
• West J, Rentzeperis F, Adam C, Bravo R, Luddy KA, Robertson-Tessi M, Anderson ARA. Tumor-immune metaphenotypes orchestrate an evolutionary bottleneck that promotes metabolic transformation. Front Immunol. 2024 Feb.15:1323319. Pubmedid: 38426105. Pmcid: PMC10902449.
• Axenie C, Lopez-Corona O, Makridis MA, Akbarzadeh M, Serveriano M, Stancu A, West J. Antifragility in complex dynamical systems. npj Complex. 2024 Aug.1.
• Gillis N, Padron E, Wang T, Chen K, DeVos JD, Spellman SR, Lee SJ, Kitko CL, MacMillan ML, West J, Tang YH, Teng M, McNulty S, Druley TE, Pidala JA, Lazaryan A. Pilot Study of Donor-Engrafted Clonal Hematopoiesis Evolution and Clinical Outcomes in Allogeneic Hematopoietic Cell Transplantation Recipients Using a National Registry. Transplant Cell Ther. 2023 Oct.29(10):640.e1-640.e8. Pubmedid: 37517612. Pmcid: PMC10592088.
• Strobl MAR, Gallaher J, Robertson-Tessi M, West J, Anderson ARA. Treatment of evolving cancers will require dynamic decision support. Ann Oncol. 2023 Oct.34(10):867-884. Pubmedid: 37777307.
• West J, Adler F, Gallaher J, Strobl M, Brady-Nicholls R, Brown J, Robertson-Tessi M, Kim E, Noble R, Viossat Y, Basanta D, Anderson ARA. A survey of open questions in adaptive therapy: Bridging mathematics and clinical translation. Elife. 2023 Mar.12. Pubmedid: 36952376. Pmcid: PMC10036119.
• Strobl M, Martin AL, West J, Gallaher J, Robertson-Tessi M, Gatenby R, Wenham R, Maini P, Damaghi M, Anderson A. Adaptive therapy for ovarian cancer: An integrated approach to PARP inhibitor scheduling. bioRxiv. 2023 Mar. Pubmedid: 36993591. Pmcid: PMC10055330.
• Taleb NN, West J. Working with Convex Responses: Antifragility from Finance to Oncology. Entropy (Basel). 2023 Feb.25(2). Pubmedid: 36832709. Pmcid: PMC9955868.
• Axenie C, López-Corona O, Makridis MA, Akbarzadeh M, Saveriano M, Stancu A, West J. Antifragility as a complex system's response to perturbations, volatility, and time. ArXiv. 2023 Dec. Pubmedid: 38196741. Pmcid: PMC10775345.
• Gallaher J, Strobl M, West J, Gatenby R, Zhang J, Robertson-Tessi M, Anderson ARA. Intermetastatic and Intrametastatic Heterogeneity Shapes Adaptive Therapy Cycling Dynamics. Cancer Res. 2023 Aug.83(16):2775-2789. Pubmedid: 37205789. Pmcid: PMC10425736.
• West J, Robertson-Tessi M, Anderson ARA. Agent-based methods facilitate integrative science in cancer. Trends Cell Biol. 2023 Apr.33(4):300-311. Pubmedid: 36404257.
• Prabhakaran S, Gatenbee C, Robertson-Tessi M, West J, Beg AA, Gray J, Antonia S, Gatenby RA, Anderson ARA. Mistic: An open-source multiplexed image t-SNE viewer. Patterns (N Y). 2022 Jul.3(7):100523. Pubmedid: 35845830. Pmcid: PMC9278502.
• Schenck RO, Kim E, Bravo RR, West J, Leedham S, Shibata D, Anderson ARA. Homeostasis limits keratinocyte evolution. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 2022 Aug.119(35). Pubmedid: 35998218. Pmcid: PMC9436311.
• Schenck RO, Brosula G, West J, Leedham S, Shibata D, Anderson AR. Gattaca: Base-Pair Resolution Mutation Tracking for Somatic Evolution Studies using Agent-based Models. Mol Biol Evol. 2022 Apr.39(4). Pubmedid: 35298641. Pmcid: PMC9034688.
• Strobl MAR, Gallaher J, West J, Robertson-Tessi M, Maini PK, Anderson ARA. Spatial structure impacts adaptive therapy by shaping intra-tumoral competition. Commun Med (Lond). 2022 Apr.2:46. Pubmedid: 35603284. Pmcid: PMC9053239.
• Gatenbee CD, Baker AM, Schenck RO, Strobl M, West J, Neves MP, Hasan SY, Lakatos E, Martinez P, Cross WCH, Jansen M, Rodriguez-Justo M, Whelan CJ, Sottoriva A, Leedham S, Robertson-Tessi M, Graham TA, Anderson ARA. Immunosuppressive niche engineering at the onset of human colorectal cancer. Nat Commun. 2022 Apr.13(1):1798. Pubmedid: 35379804. Pmcid: PMC8979971.
• Damaghi M, West J, Robertson-Tessi M, Xu L, Ferrall-Fairbanks MC, Stewart PA, Persi E, Fridley BL, Altrock PM, Gatenby RA, Sims PA, Anderson ARA, Gillies RJ. The harsh microenvironment in early breast cancer selects for a Warburg phenotype. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 2021 Jan.118(3). Pubmedid: 33452133. Pmcid: PMC7826394.
• Strobl MAR, West J, Viossat Y, Damaghi M, Robertson-Tessi M, Brown JS, Gatenby RA, Maini PK, Anderson ARA. Turnover Modulates the Need for a Cost of Resistance in Adaptive Therapy. Cancer Res. 2021 Feb.81(4):1135-1147. Pubmedid: 33172930. Pmcid: PMC8455086.
• West J, Schenck RO, Gatenbee C, Robertson-Tessi M, Anderson ARA. Normal tissue architecture determines the evolutionary course of cancer. Nat Commun. 2021 Apr.12(1):2060. Pubmedid: 33824323. Pmcid: PMC8024392.
• West J, Ma Y, Kaznatcheev A, Anderson ARA. IsoMaTrix: a framework to visualize the isoclines of matrix games and quantify uncertainty in structured populations. Bioinformatics. 2021 Apr.36(22-23):5542-5544. Pubmedid: 33325501. Pmcid: PMC8016459.
• Bravo RR, Baratchart E, West J, Schenck RO, Miller AK, Gallaher J, Gatenbee CD, Basanta D, Robertson-Tessi M, Anderson ARA. Hybrid Automata Library: A flexible platform for hybrid modeling with real-time visualization. PLoS Comput Biol. 2020 Mar.16(3):e1007635. Pubmedid: 32155140. Pmcid: PMC7105119.
• West J, You L, Zhang J, Gatenby RA, Brown JS, Newton PK, Anderson ARA. Towards Multidrug Adaptive Therapy. Cancer Res. 2020 Apr.80(7):1578-1589. Pubmedid: 31948939. Pmcid: PMC7307613.
• West JB, Dinh MN, Brown JS, Zhang J, Anderson AR, Gatenby RA. Multidrug Cancer Therapy in Metastatic Castrate-Resistant Prostate Cancer: An Evolution-Based Strategy. Clin Cancer Res. 2019 Jul.25(14):4413-4421. Pubmedid: 30992299. Pmcid: PMC6665681.
• West J, Robertson-Tessi M, Luddy K, Park DS, Williamson DFK, Harmon C, Khong HT, Brown J, Anderson ARA. The Immune Checkpoint Kick Start: Optimization of Neoadjuvant Combination Therapy Using Game Theory. JCO Clin Cancer Inform. 2019 Feb.3:1-12. Pubmedid: 30742484. Pmcid: PMC6873943.
• West J, Newton PK. Cellular interactions constrain tumor growth. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 2019 Feb.116(6):1918-1923. Pubmedid: 30674661. Pmcid: PMC6369808.
• West J, Ma Y, Newton PK. Capitalizing on competition: An evolutionary model of competitive release in metastatic castration resistant prostate cancer treatment. J Theor Biol. 2018 Oct.455:249-260. Pubmedid: 30048718. Pmcid: PMC7519622.
• West J, Hasnain Z, Macklin P, Newton PK. AN EVOLUTIONARY MODEL OF TUMOR CELL KINETICS AND THE EMERGENCE OF MOLECULAR HETEROGENEITY DRIVING GOMPERTZIAN GROWTH. SIAM Rev Soc Ind Appl Math. 2018 Jun.58(4):716-736. Pubmedid: 29937592. Pmcid: PMC6013275.
• West J, Newton PK. Chemotherapeutic Dose Scheduling Based on Tumor Growth Rates Provides a Case for Low-Dose Metronomic High-Entropy Therapies. Cancer Res. 2017 Dec.77(23):6717-6728. Pubmedid: 28986381. Pmcid: PMC5712269.
• West J, Hasnain Z, Mason J, Newton PK. The prisoner's dilemma as a cancer model. Converg Sci Phys Oncol. 2016 Sep.2(3). Pubmedid: 29177084. Pmcid: PMC5701760.

• Title: Evidence-based monitoring of clonal hematopoiesis in treatment for breast cancer
  Award Number: n/a
  Sponsor: Florida Breast Cancer Foundation
  Johnson, N. (PD/PI), West, J. (PD/PI)
• Title: AR-agonist pre-treatment enables evolutionary steering in metastatic ER+ breast cancer
  Award Number:
  Sponsor: Florida Department of Health
  Permuth, J. (PD/PI), West, J. (PD/PI)
• Title: Evolutionary Therapy in ER+ Breast Cancer Guided by Second-Order Reasoning
  Award Number:
  Sponsor: American Cancer Society, Inc. (ACS)
  West, J. (PD/PI)