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Combined mathematical programming and heuristics for a radiotherapy pre-treatment scheduling problem

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Abstract

Demand for radiotherapy treatment services has increased due to higher cancer incidence, ageing population, and a larger number of prescribed radiotherapy fractions. This higher demand can, in turn, produce longer waiting times for radiotherapy treatment. We introduce a real-world radiotherapy pre-treatment scheduling problem at a hospital in the UK. This scheduling problem is modelled as an optimisation problem with multiple objectives. The objectives are hierarchical, thus the solution approach is based on solving a series of single-objective optimisation scheduling problems. Each of these problems is formulated as a mathematical programming model. Dispatching rules were introduced to produce an initial solution for the mathematical programming model. Their performance is compared to the mathematical programming approach.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Automated Scheduling, Optimisation and Planning (ASAP) Research Group, School of Computer Science, University of Nottingham, Nottingham, NG8 1BB, UK

    Elkin Castro & Sanja Petrovic

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  1. Elkin Castro
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  2. Sanja Petrovic
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Correspondence to Elkin Castro.

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Castro, E., Petrovic, S. Combined mathematical programming and heuristics for a radiotherapy pre-treatment scheduling problem. J Sched 15, 333–346 (2012). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10951-011-0239-8

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10951-011-0239-8

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