{"entity":{"id":"digital-twin-patient-models","kind":"technology","name":"Patient digital twins","aka":[],"tldr":"A digital twin is a computer model of one patient's tumour and body, updated with each scan and blood test, used to forecast how the disease will respond to each option before it is tried.","summary":"Patient digital twins combine mechanistic models (growth, radiobiology, pharmacokinetics, immune dynamics) with a patient's own imaging, genomics and markers, re-fitted as new data arrive. Prototypes forecast glioma growth for radiotherapy planning, optimise radiation fractionation for individual patients, simulate CAR-T expansion and choose adaptive therapy thresholds; the US National Academies set out a research agenda for digital twins in 2023 and the FDA has begun to discuss their evidentiary standards. They differ from virtual control arms, which model a typical patient rather than this one, and they stand or fall on the identifiability of their parameters from sparse clinical data.","status":"emerging","asOf":"2026-09-17","links":[{"label":"National Academies 2023: Foundational research gaps and future directions for digital twins","url":"https://nap.nationalacademies.org/catalog/26894"}],"tags":["mathematical-model"],"related":[],"cancers":[],"sections":["ai-computation","drug-discovery"],"technologies":["digital-twins-trials","reaction-diffusion-glioma-model","quantitative-systems-pharmacology","adaptive-therapy-dynamics"],"targets":[],"drugs":[],"companies":[],"institutions":[],"pathways":[],"terms":[],"trials":[],"people":[],"bottlenecks":[],"keyPapers":[],"journals":[],"notes":[],"principle":"A patient-specific state model is calibrated and continually updated from that patient's data, then run forward under alternative treatments to compare predicted outcomes.","strengths":["Individual forecasts rather than averages","Integrates every model on this page","Natural framework for adaptive treatment"],"limitations":["Parameters often not identifiable from clinical data","No regulatory pathway yet","Validation requires prospective trials"],"since":2020},"route":"/technologies/digital-twin-patient-models/","neighbours":{"section":[{"id":"ai-computation","kind":"section","name":"AI & Computation","route":"/fronts/ai-computation/"},{"id":"drug-discovery","kind":"section","name":"Drug Discovery Platforms","route":"/fronts/drug-discovery/"}],"technology":[{"id":"adaptive-therapy-dynamics","kind":"technology","name":"Adaptive therapy (evolution-based dosing)","route":"/technologies/adaptive-therapy-dynamics/"},{"id":"digital-twins-trials","kind":"technology","name":"Digital twins and virtual control arms","route":"/technologies/digital-twins-trials/"},{"id":"reaction-diffusion-glioma-model","kind":"technology","name":"Proliferation-invasion (reaction-diffusion) models of glioma","route":"/technologies/reaction-diffusion-glioma-model/"},{"id":"quantitative-systems-pharmacology","kind":"technology","name":"Quantitative systems pharmacology (QSP)","route":"/technologies/quantitative-systems-pharmacology/"}]}}