Northville Nonprofit Taps Math, Engineering, and Computer Simulations to Speed Cancer and Disease Treatment

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KressWorks Foundation a Northville-based nonprofit, is developing a systematic treatment approach to cure or put into remission Ewing’s Sarcoma, the second most frequent type of bone tumor in children and young adults.

The methodolgy can be applied to essentially any treatable disease that can be mathematically modeled and simulated via computer, says Dr. James Kress, founder of the foundation, the organization beind the new approach.

“Fundamental science and engineering utilizes quantitative, mathematical analysis, simulation, and experimental processes of verification,” Kress says. “By applying systems engineering to cellular systems, atomic and molecular processes can be systematically manipulated to affect cells, organs, and the body to either prevent cancer entirely or improve the lives of people surviving cancer.”

Doctors will be able to use the tool to design, implement, monitor, and adjust patient treatment so that it is targeted, effective, and efficient, Kress says. The methodology will allow the patient and doctor to choose a mutually agreeable treatment regimen that will simultaneously optimize treatment effectiveness, patient quality of life, and cost efficiency.

Kress is preparing to begin the second of nine phases in the systematic treatment methodology. Once the treatment is successfully applied to Ewing’s — which normally attacks patients between the ages of 5 and 25 — the organization will seek out and apply the treatment to other forms of cancer as well as other diseases.

Kress says he founded the organization in 2009 in honor of his youngest sister, Patience Kress Hensley, who died from Ewing’s after it was in remission for 25 years. Kress attributes his sister’s death to the fact that when the Ewing’s returned in her mid-50s, Pat’s treatment was not targeted, effective, or efficient.

“The cancer death rate, adjusted for the size and age of the population, has decreased by only 5 percent between 1950 and 2010,” Kress says. “In today’s cancer research and clinical institutions, we find a proliferation of the pursuit of answers to individual questions, but we believe a coordinated systems engineering approach is the key for developing a cure.”

For more information about the foundation, call 248-605-8770 or visit kressworks.org.