Biological adaptive radiation therapy – BioART

Traditionally, radiation therapy of tumours aims at delivering a homogeneous dose to the entire target volume, although intra-tumour variations in cellular and physiological factors of importance for response to therapy have been demonstrated. Biological adaptive radiation therapy (BioART) aims at tailoring the radiation dose distribution on a sub-regional level in the tumour according regional variations in radiobiological factors, like hypoxia.
It has been suggested that non-invasive biological imaging (like MRI, MRSi and PET) may provide the pertinent information to guide the painting or sculpting of the optimal dose distribution to the tumour. Simulations of tumour control probability (TCP) have demonstrated that increasing the dose to hypoxic regions, while keeping the mean dose constant may increase TCP. Moreover, tailored dose distribution is feasible with modern irradiation techniques like intensitymodulated radiation therapy (IMRT) and computer-controlled HDR brachytherapy. The aims of this project are:

To utilize biological imaging (cedMRI, MRSi and PET) in visualizing cellular and tumour physiological factors of importance for radiation response
Design models for optimizing dose distribution with respect to TCP, based on biological imaging
Demonstrate enhanced local control in experimental and clinical studies

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Subprojects:
- Optimization of dose distribution based on tumour physiological imaging – from biological imaging to dose maps
- Adaptive irradiation of H&N cancers based on dce-MRI imaging – a study of canine (dog) tumours
- Adaptive pre-operative irradiation of locally advandce rectal carcinomas
- Experimental BioART based on dce-MRI in a murine tumour model

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