Professor John Heath discusses the data he presented at NCRI 2010 on the use of computer science and mathematics to model cancer pathways. Recent advances in the understanding of cancer have revealed that a number of different factors influence how tumours behave and that tumours are frequently caused by mutations in complicated signalling pathways. Professor Heath explains how advances in computing and mathematics are being used to account for these influences and predict how tumours will act and suggests how these advances could eventually help clinicians treat cancer.