Tumour growth control: analysis of alternative approaches

Abstract

In this work we address the problem of tumour growth control by properly exploiting a low-dimensional model that grounds on the Chemical Reaction Network (CRN) formalism. Originally conceived to work both in deterministic and stochastic frameworks, it is shown that, except for the case of very low number of tumour cells, the deterministic approach is appropriate to characterize the system behaviour, especially for control planning purposes. Two alternative control approaches are here investigated. One trivially assumes a constant infusion of external drug administration, the other is designed according to a state-feedback control scheme, with complete or partial knowledge of the state. Pros and cons of both control laws are investigated, showing that the tumour size at the beginning of the therapy plays a role of paramount importance for fixed infusion therapies, whilst only state-feedback laws can eradicate arbitrarily large tumours.

Keywords: Control theory; Numerical simulation; Qualitative behaviour analysis; Tumour growth and treatment.