Radiography driven deformable image registration in adaptive proton therapy

• Applicant: Professor Dr.-Ing. Marco Riboldi
• Subject Area: Medical Physics, Biomedical Technology
• Term: from 2021 to 2025
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 455550444

The project focuses on the use of sparse 2D proton radiographies for the implementation of adaptive treatment protocols in proton therapy. Treatment adaptation has been shown to provide clinical advantages in conventional photon therapy, and dedicated imaging procedures are needed to extend such advantages to proton therapy. Novel activities are envisioned to fill the existing gaps towards the implementation of adaptive irradiation based on proton radiographs. The activities planned in this renewal proposal are meant to complement the ongoing research efforts toward the development of clinical proton imaging acquisition systems. Alongside the implementation of clinical imaging devices, the existing gaps can be summarized as follows: (1) the absence of integrated methods to concurrently account for anatomical changes uncertainties in the proton range in a daily adaptive plan scenario, (2) the need for a simulation environment where inaccuracies in adaptation are linked to variations in dosimetric outcomes and (3) the lack of accurate anthropomorphic phantoms for experimental validation and quality assurance of adaptive protocols. The proposal aims at the exploitation of the 2D-3D registration framework and the experimental phantom development skills developed throughout the previous project proposal. The overall scientific goal of the proposed project will be achieved through the following specific objectives: (i) implementation of calibration refinement procedures embedded in the registration framework so that anatomical changes and proton range variations can be compensated simultaneously; (ii) to investigate the impact of these changes and quantify the benefit of adaptive proton therapy driven by proton radiographies and (iii) to develop and characterize a realistic 4D thorax phantom, suitable for multi-modal imaging acquisition, for future experimental verification of adaptive proton therapy. The achievement of such objectives is expected to provide experimental studies for adaptive proton therapy based on proton radiographies, once the technology will be developed for future clinical use.

• DFG Programme: Research Grants