Special Session 52: Differential Equations and Dynamical Systems in Mathematical Biology

Is maximum tolerated dose (MTD) chemotherapy scheduling optimal for glioblastoma multiforme?
Chiu-Yen Kao
Claremont McKenna College
USA
Co-Author(s):    Chiu-Yen Kao, Seyyed Abbas Mohammadi, Mohsen Yousefnezhad
Abstract:
In this study, we investigate a control problem involving a reaction-diffusion partial differential equation (PDE). Specifically, the focus is on optimizing the chemotherapy scheduling for brain tumor treatment to minimize the remaining tumor cells post-chemotherapy. Our findings establish that a bang-bang increasing function is the unique solution, affirming the MTD scheduling as the optimal chemotherapy profile. Several numerical experiments on a real brain image with parameters from clinics are conducted for tumors located in the frontal lobe, temporal lobe, or occipital lobe. They confirm our theoretical results and suggest a correlation between the proliferation rate of the tumor and the effectiveness of the optimal treatment.