Fuzzy PROMETHEE analysis of leukemia treatment techniques

Abstract

OBJECTIVE: Leukemia is an abnormal division of cells that results in the formation of abnormal white-blood cells. Therapy is very important in order to increase the chances of survival from the disease. The objective of this research is to analyze the most common therapeutic techniques for leukemia, such as radiotherapy, targeted drug treatment, immunotherapy, gene-therapy, stem-cell transplant, and chemotherapy to determine the most suitable treatment option using the Fuzzy Preference Ranking Organization Method for Enrichment of Evaluations (PROMETHEE), which is a decision-making tool. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Fuzzy PROMETHEE deals with problems characterized by uncertainty and is based on a comparison of the alternatives with regard to their criteria. Computing the differences in the alternatives, contribution is based on the weight and preference function of each criterion. The criteria selected in this study include cost of treatment, cost per session, period of treatment, time per session, survival rate, side effects and advantages. After defining the values of each criteria and assigning weights, decision lab software was used to obtain the complete ranking. RESULTS: The evaluation results showed that radiation therapy outclasses other treatment techniques in leukemia therapy based on the selected criteria, importance, and weights of the parameters, followed by targeted drug therapy, immunotherapy, stem cell transplant and finally, chemotherapy. CONCLUSIONS: Having applied fuzzy PROMETHEE in the analysis of the different treatment techniques for leukemia, we were able to achieve reliable results that can aid physicians and patients to embark on a favorable treatment option.

Keywords

• leukemia
• therapeutic techniques
• fuzzy promethee
• decision-making