Optimal multidrug treatment in the presence of drug resistance stemming from gene amplification

The paper is concerned with development of optimal treatment protocols that take into account both action of several drugs and the evolution of drug resistance. It is a result of analysis of evolution of drug resistance in cancer population but presented methodology can be applied in any case involving drug resistance stemming from gene amplification. First, a biological background is given. In subsequent sections of the paper, the developed technique is presented and some early analytical results, which form a basis for more precise modeling, are shown. Afterwards, the model description is transformed into a vector integro-differential equation, which makes it possible to define necessary conditions of optimal solution to the minimization problem arising from the search for the optimal treatment. Finally, some remarks on the model applicability are presented.