Abstract
The number of patients of prostate cancer is rapidly increasing. It is known that androgen enhances the growth of prostate cancer. Thus, continuous androgen suppression therapy, e.g. surgical castration and continuous medication, is used as the main form of therapy. However, many patients suffer from a relapse of the cancer. The relapse is rooted in changes of prostate cancer from androgen dependent to androgen independent. Intermittent androgen suppression (IAS) is a strategy to delay or possibly prevent the relapse. To prevent the prostate cancer from acquiring proliferating ability under the low androgen concentration condition, off-treatment periods in IAS therapy play an important role. Ideta et al. and Hirata et al. mathematically describe the dynamics of a tumor being treated by IAS. Analyses of these models show that the existing protocol of IAS therapy can be improved by our new protocol based on the region-dividing control.
