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Abstract:
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The incidence of newly reported oral cancer cases is expected to increase at an alarming rate over the next two decades. Thus, great interest exists in finding the optimal or desired treatment outcome that potentially eradicates the cancer cells while disturbing as few of the body's healthy cells as possible. Researchers have identified single-drug treatments that target this cancer; however, high dosages of such drugs are toxic to the body's healthy cells. We examine the treatment outcome of 11 drugs previously identified through pilot studies to successfully reduce the malignant cells. We make use of 2- and 3-level factorial design methodology to improve efficiency while minimizing time and resources. A novel approach using Orthogonal Array Composite Designs aids on objectively testing for consistency across our designs. Analysis identified three drugs with significant treatment effects for cancer cells in the 2-level design; however, the results conflicted when looking at the treatment effect on healthy cells. Thus, we consider a 3-level design to gain a better understanding of the drug-drug interactions in hopes of finding the optimum drugs and dosage combinations.
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