Nature-inspired metaheuristics for optimizing dose-finding and computationally challenging clinical trial designs.

ABSTRACT: Metaheuristics are commonly used in computer science and engineering to solve optimization problems, but their potential applications in clinical trial design have remained largely unexplored. This article provides a brief overview of metaheuristics and reviews their limited use in clinical trial settings. We focus on nature-inspired metaheuristics and apply one of its exemplary algorithms, the particle swarm optimization (PSO) algorithm, to find phase I/II designs that jointly consider toxicity and efficacy. As a specific application, we demonstrate the utility of PSO in designing optimal dose-finding studies to estimate the optimal biological dose (OBD) for a continuation-ratio model with four parameters under multiple constraints. Our design improves existing designs by protecting patie

SUBMITTER: Wong WK 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC12318163 | biostudies-literature | 2025 Aug

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature