EXPLORING THE EFFECTIVENESS OF LOW CONTINUOUS CHEMO-BIO-THERAPEUTIC TREATMENT OF CANCER THROUGH ANALYTICAL SYSTEM MODELLING

Abstract

Analytical models of tumor growth in the presence and absence of drug is important for studying the dynamics of treatment in oncology. In this paper, a time-variant state-space model is investigated. The model captures the inherent nonlinearity of the system. Physiological constraints of the system are considered in the model and controllability of the tumor load is examined. If it is possible to find a sequence of drug doses that can drive the tumor load to any arbitrary negligibly small final condition from any arbitrary initial condition in a given number of days without affecting the physiological state of the patient, the tumor is said to be controllable. Drug administration strategies like maximum tolerated dose, metronomic chemotherapy in the presence and absence of immunotherapy have been examined. It is found that low yet prolonged continuous dosing of drug along with tuning of biological factors may be a better workable strategy for positive treatment outcome.