Optimal schedule for cancer chemotherapy

In this paper the authors consider the problems of modeling the tumor growth and optimize the chemotherapy treatment. A biologically based model is used with the goal of solving an optimization problem involving discrete delivery of antineoplastic drugs. The present model is formulated via compartmental analysis in order to take into account the cell cycle. The cost functional measures not only the final size of the tumor but also the total amount of drug delivered. The authors propose an algorithm based on the discrete maximum principle to solve the optimal drug schedule problem. The present numerical results show nice interpretations from the medical point of view.