Modelling the change of white blood cell on colorectal cancer treatment using probit regression

Colorectal cancer has become one of the cancer types with high incidence rate all over the world. Various efforts have been carried out to find a way to decrease the risk of cancer. Chemotherapy using 5-Fluorouracil (5-FU) is one of the common cancer treatments that is expected to drive the white blood cell (WBC) level into the normal level. This research investigates the factors influencing the change of WBC level in cancer patients treated with 5-FU combined with physical treatment in the form of footsteps. By focusing on the change of WBC level, i.e. decreasing or increasing the WBC level as the response, probit regression was applied to the data measured from 28 cancer patients who have undergone 14 days of treatment. The probit regression found that age of the patient, average number of daily footsteps and the dose of 5-FU signficantly influence the change of WBC. The regression is able to classify the case with a satisfactory results, i.e. 85.71% classification accuracy. This finding can be a guideline to better treat the colorectal cancer patient to reach a normal WBC.