A bi-objective optimization model for planning the treatment of cancer cells by volumetric modulated arc therapy

Cancer, one of the leading causes of death in the world, has been on the rise in recent years and is expected to continue in the coming years. Therefore, the importance of developing a cancer control program and the need to provide effective methods is very important. Given that radiation therapy is an effective way to treat cancer, studies on this method of treatment are important and significant. The main purpose of this paper is to provide a mathematical model for the latest method of radiotherapy called volumetric modulated arc therapy. In most studies in this field, due to the complexity of the model, the purpose of the problem is to maximize the dose received in the target area or to minimize the dose received in the area organs at risk. In this study, both objectives are considered together and a bi-objective model is presented. The results of the 8 studied instances show that the dose received in the target area is significantly higher than the dose received in the area around the tumor. In addition to increasing the dose received in the target area and decreasing the dose received in the cells around the target, the distribution of the dose in the voxels is very important, so the dose was examined with the coefficient of variation. The results show that the proposed model with a coefficient of variation of less than 10% has a conformal dose distribution in all tissues (cancerous tissue and healthy tissue).