Optimal control applied to drug administration in cancer chemotherapy: the case of several toxicity constraints

Abstract

Cancer chemotherapy for the case of one drug is studied. The negative and inhibiting effect of the tumor on normal cells is taken into account. Under certain assumptions, we determine the optimal regimen that minimizes the tumor burden at the end of a fixed period of therapy, while maintaining certain normal cell populations above prescribed levels. More precisely, it is demonstrated that the optimal strategy corresponds to injection of the drug at the maximal rate.

The effects of mutation and directed intervention crossover when applied to scheduling chemotherapy

“…This complexity is due to the range of drugs available and other factors such as toxicity levels in the patient caused by treatments. Through the use of deterministic mathematical models, valuable efforts in the analysis of cancer chemotherapy have been made [9]. However, the problem can be regarded as analytically intractable due to both its multi-constraint nature and the non-linearity of the optimisation functions [13].…”