Deep learning for adaptive chemotherapy: A DDPG-based approach to optimizing tumor-immune dynamics

Wenlang Zhu, Mingliu Zhu, Weiye Wang, Liang Xu, Jie Wu, Weiping Li, Ruru Ma and Lingli Cao

PLOS ONE, 2026, vol. 21, issue 4, 1-22

Abstract: In this article, we propose a deep reinforcement learning based chemotherapy regulation framework to realize personalized and dynamic optimization of cancer treatment. We use a nonlinear dynamic system to model the dynamic evolution of the tumor microenvironment including tumor cell, normal cell and immune cell interactions, with drug concentration serving as the control input variable. The Deep Deterministic Policy Gradient (DDPG) algorithm makes agents can study optimal dosing strategy in a continuous space of movement to inhibit tumor growth effectively and minimize damage to normal tissues. To make the strategy more stable, Gauss noise is added to the model to simulate physiological oscillations and uncertainties in the treatment reaction. Experimental results show that it can control the growth of tumor in various initial scenarios and the accumulation of the drug concentration with high flexibility and safety. Our technique provides a feasible technical way for precision, low toxicity adaptive chemotherapy.

Date: 2026
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:plo:pone00:0345877

DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0345877

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