A comparative optimal control strategy for melanoma treatment via radiotherapy, TAMs-targeted therapy, and CAR T-cell administration
Abstract
Melanoma remains one of the most serious and challenging forms of skin cancer, mainly because of treatment resistance and disease progression. In this work, we study melanoma treatment using a comparative optimal control approach. Starting from a mathematical model of melanoma dynamics involving CAR T-cells and tumor-associated macrophages (TAMs), we introduce three control functions representing radiotherapy, TAM-targeted therapeutic intervention, and CAR T-cell administration. We compare these strategies when they are applied alone or in combination, in order to evaluate their ability to control tumor progression while preserving the immune response. We first study the existence and local stability of equilibrium points under constant control rates. Then, we formulate an optimal control problem with time-dependent controls and perform numerical simulations to compare the different therapeutic strategies. Our results suggest that the combined use of radiotherapy, TAM-targeted therapeutic intervention, and CAR T-cell administration gives the best control of melanoma progression. When the simultaneous use of all controls is not feasible, the combination of radiotherapy and CAR T-cell administration appears more effective than the combination of TAM-targeted therapeutic intervention and CAR T-cell administration. Moreover, CAR Tcell administration plays a central role and, under certain model conditions, may be sufficient on its own to prevent melanoma progression.
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BibTeX
@article{elghandouri2026comparative,
title = {{A comparative optimal control strategy for melanoma treatment via radiotherapy, TAMs-targeted therapy, and CAR T-cell administration}},
author = {Mohammed Elghandouri and Nohayla Alaoui and Mostafa Adimy},
journal = {Computational \& Applied Mathematics},
year = {2026},
month = oct,
doi = {10.1007/s40314-026-03937-5},
url = {https://inria.hal.science/hal-05826671v1},
note = {CC BY 4.0},
}
RIS
TY - JOUR
TI - A comparative optimal control strategy for melanoma treatment via radiotherapy, TAMs-targeted therapy, and CAR T-cell administration
AU - Mohammed Elghandouri
AU - Nohayla Alaoui
AU - Mostafa Adimy
PY - 2026
DA - 2026/10/20
JO - Computational & Applied Mathematics
DO - 10.1007/s40314-026-03937-5
UR - https://inria.hal.science/hal-05826671v1
AB - Melanoma remains one of the most serious and challenging forms of skin cancer, mainly because of treatment resistance and disease progression. In this work, we study melanoma treatment using a comparative optimal control approach. Starting from a mathematical model of melanoma dynamics involving CAR T-cells and tumor-associated macrophages (TAMs), we introduce three control functions representing radiotherapy, TAM-targeted therapeutic intervention, and CAR T-cell administration. We compare these strategies when they are applied alone or in combination, in order to evaluate their ability to control tumor progression while preserving the immune response. We first study the existence and local stability of equilibrium points under constant control rates. Then, we formulate an optimal control problem with time-dependent controls and perform numerical simulations to compare the different therapeutic strategies. Our results suggest that the combined use of radiotherapy, TAM-targeted therapeutic intervention, and CAR T-cell administration gives the best control of melanoma progression. When the simultaneous use of all controls is not feasible, the combination of radiotherapy and CAR T-cell administration appears more effective than the combination of TAM-targeted therapeutic intervention and CAR T-cell administration. Moreover, CAR Tcell administration plays a central role and, under certain model conditions, may be sufficient on its own to prevent melanoma progression.
SN - 2238-3603
SN - 1807-0302
ER -