American Journal of Computer Science and Information Technology

Combined radio-chemo-therapy as a control problem: optimization of protocols vs. real therapy schedules

EuroSciCon Conference & Expo on Robotics, Automation & Data Analytics
April 08-09, 2019 | Paris, France

Andrzej Swierniak, P Bajger, R Suwinski and J Smieja

Silesian University of Technology, Poland Warsaw University, Poland Centre of Oncology M Sklodowska-Curie Institute branch, Poland

Keynote: Am J Compt Sci Inform Technol

Abstract

The use of optimal control theory in mathematical modelling of cancer therapies has had more than five decades of history. The early literature is mainly focussed on cancer chemotherapy, then it has been applied for novel cancer treatments such as anti-angiogenic therapy, immunotherapy and gene therapy, and recently combination of chemotherapy. These modern modalities have become a subject of multi-input control optimization. Surprisingly, the most often combined therapy which contains chemotherapy as a systemic treatment and radiation as a local therapy is almost absent in the literature on system theory application to planning a war against cancer. We present an explicit solution to the multi-input optimal control problem formulated for the simple model of cancer growth under the combined therapy. Then we append this model by additional equations describing pharmacokinetics and DNA repair of adjacent strand breaks and study alterations in optimal control strategies resulting from these processes. Ultimately we compare found protocols with the results for the realistic ones using Kaplan-Meier survival curves using solutions in silico. We discuss both structural and parametric sensitivity of the models and results obtained by our analysis and the role of parameter estimation for tumor growth models. Although the models taken into account are quite simple we conclude that a careful judgement id necessary on a case-by-case basis to determine if drug metabolism and/or DNA repair may be ignored in mathematical models. On the other hand we have found that the role of parameter estimation for tumor growth models in the case of realistic protocols is the essential for prediction of efficiency of different therapy schedules.

Biography

Andrzej Swierniak has completed his PhD from Silesian University of Technology and ten years after he received DSc (habilition) degree from the same Unvesrsity. He is the Director of Institute of Automation of the Faculty of Automatic Control, Electronics and Informatuics, and a Full Professor in Automatic Control and Bioinformatics. He has published more than 300 papers in journals (more than 100 indexed in WoS database) and has been serving as an Editorial Board Member of widely recognized journals in his area of expertise. He is a Fellow of American mathematical Society and a Senior Member of IEEE.

E-mail: Andrzej.swierniak@polsl.pl