Garchinger Maier-Leibnitz-Kolloquium: MRI-guidance in external beam radiotherapy: from anatomical to biological targeting

by Prof. Chiara Paganelli (Politecnico di Milano, Italy)

Thursday 30 Nov 2023, 16:15 → 17:15 Europe/Berlin

Lecture Hall, ground floor (west) (LMU building, Am Coulombwall 1, campus Garching)

In the last years Magnetic Resonance Imaging has gained importance in external beam radiotherapy (RT) both for treatment planning as well as treatment delivery. The two main clinical drivers for the adoption of MRI-guidance in RT are the ability to image anatomical changes that occur before and during treatment in order to adapt the treatment approach, and to image and target the biological features of each tumour. The first factor has been recently clinically implemented in conventional X-rays RT with the newly developed MRI-linacs, and its potential investigated also in advanced treatments with particle beams. The biological targeting instead is still embryonal, as the models currently used to tune and adapt the dose to be delivered as a function of the expected tumour control probability, mainly rely on in-vitro experiments and are still not patient-specific. In this talk, I will discuss the activities conducted at the CartCasLab of Politecnico di Milano, on MRI to account for anatomical changes during RT, with a focus on organ motion modelling. I will then highlight the preliminary activities on the use of MRI for biological targeting through macroscopic and microscopic modelling, as well as the future directions on this topic that will be conducted within the ERC Starting Grant MINIONS project.

kolloquium-30-11-23.pdf