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Created by: Mattia Corigliano (@MCorigliano_, @SPCGgroup)

Issue 343: Optimizing treatment schedules for drug-induced cancer persisters. Targeted therapies can trigger a reversible drug-tolerant state in subpopulations of cancer cells, reminiscent of bacterial persistence. Using mathematical modeling adapted from this framework, we explored intermittent treatment protocols aimed at minimizing long-term population fitness. Our results show that carefully timed recovery periods and intermediate drug doses can outperform continuous therapy, shaping population dynamics in nontrivial ways and defining regions of success and failure within a clinically relevant parameter space. The cover image illustrates how treatment outcomes depend jointly on drug concentration and recovery duration, highlighting the counterintuitive prediction that intermittent, moderate dosing can be more effective than continuous high-dose therapy.