OPTIMAL DRUG SCHEDULING OF CANCER CHEMOTHERAPY

Abstract

An optimal piecewise constant control policy for cancer chemotherapy is given, such that the size of a tumor is minimized at the end of a given time interval, and so that all the state constraints are satisfied. Due to the large number of state constraints, direct search optimization was used. A sequence of computer runs was necessary to establish the optimal control policy. The results from a previous run were used to establish the parameters for the next run. The results were thus improved from one run to the next until the global optimal control policy was established. The results obtained are significantly better than have been previously reported for this problem.