Optimization of Drug Usage in Cancer Treatment using Combination of Chemotherapy and Immunotherapy

Combination method, including chemotherapy and immunotherapy, is one of the most effective treatment approaches suggested for cancer. In this study, a nonlinear multi-input model including chemotherapy and immunotherapy is considered for treatment of cancerous tumor growth. Due to side effects of chemotherapy and drug resistance effects, the level of used drug should be limited. In addition, the treatment should be performed in limit time. One of the solutions, which can be selected for this purpose, is the optimal treatment protocol. State dependent Riccati equation is the optimal strategy of this paper, which is designed for the tumor growth model. Afterwards, in order to show the flexibility of controller designing, several values for input weighting matrices are selected and the sensitivity of the proposed controller is analyzed. System is stabilized around the equilibrium point without tumor. Simulation results demonstrate the cancer treatment using the proposed controller could be performed in less time and by using lower drug dosage in comparison to the used method of reference model.