Patent ID: 8175808

Claim:
A method for determining a duration for administering a treatment with harmful side-effects to a patient with cancer before a hiatus in repeated cycles of treatment duration and hiatus, comprising the steps of: determining by a processor an untreated series of measurements that indicate temporal progression of a physical property related to the cancer while the cancer is untreated in a victim outside a population of patients to be treated; determining by a processor a treated series of measurements that indicate temporal progression of the physical property of the cancer while a particular multiple dose treatment is administered within a single treatment cycle before a hiatus in treatment, wherein the treated series includes an initial treatment measurement made substantively when the treatment is started and at least two subsequent measurements made at corresponding later times before the hiatus; generating by a processor a series of effectiveness values based on the untreated series and the treated series, wherein each effectiveness value indicates a relative value between an untreated time rate of change of the physical property while the cancer is untreated at one time and a treated time rate of change of the physical property while the cancer is treated with the particular treatment at a corresponding time; determining a particular elapsed time from start of multiple dose treatment to an earliest time when an effectiveness value reaches a maximum or minimum effectiveness value compared to adjacent effectiveness values; and determining a duration for administering the multiple dose treatment to a patient with cancer within a single treatment cycle before a hiatus in treatment based on the particular elapsed time.