Publicaties

In recent years, radiation research in small animals (rodents) has seen an enormous boost due to two reasons: (1) the development of more realistic disease models, e.g., cancer by introducing orthotopic tumor models, thereby mimicking human disease more closely, and (2) by the availability of image-guided precision irradiation platforms that allow for unprecedented targeting accuracy. These combined two factors enable animal research mimicking ...

Computed tomography (CT) is the standard imaging modality in radiation therapy treatment planning (RTP). However, magnetic resonance (MR) imaging provides superior soft tissue contrast, increasing the precision of target volume selection. We present MR-only based RTP for a rat brain on a small animal radiation research platform (SARRP) using probabilistic voxel classification with multiple MR sequences. Six rat heads were imaged, each with one ...

BACKGROUND: Nintedanib has anti-fibrotic and anti-inflammatory activity and is approved for the treatment of idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis. The aim of this study was to noninvasively assess the efficacy of nintedanib in a mouse model of partial lung irradiation to prevent radiation-induced lung damage (RILD). METHODS: 266 C57BL/6 adult male mice were irradiated with a single radiation dose (0, 4, 8, 12, 16 or 20Gy) using parallel-opposed fields ...

L-α-alanine Electron Paramagnetic Resonance (EPR) dosimetry is a convenient method for quality assurance (QA) measurements in radiotherapy due to its excellent properties (robustness, nearly water equivalent, nondestructive read-out, low signal fading rate). It has been used for more than 20 years as a transfer dosimetry system mostly for high-energy photon beams where the energy response is very well documented. The rapid development of small ...

Glioblastoma is the most aggressive and most common malignant primary brain tumour in adults and has a high mortality and morbidity. Because local tumour control in glioblastoma patients is still elusive in the majority of patients, there is an urgent need for alternative treatment strategies. However, to implement changes to the existing clinical standard of care, research must be conducted to develop alternative treatment strategies. A novel ...

Objective. Bioluminescence imaging (BLI) is a valuable tool for non-invasive monitoring of glioblastoma multiforme (GBM) tumor-bearing small animals without incurring x-ray radiation burden. However, the use of this imaging modality is limited due to photon scattering and lack of spatial information. Attempts at reconstructing bioluminescence tomography (BLT) using mathematical models of light propagation show limited progress. Approach. This ...

Objective. A novel solution is required for accurate 3D bioluminescence tomography (BLT) based glioblastoma (GBM) targeting. The provided solution should be computationally efficient to support real-time treatment planning, thus reducing the x-ray imaging dose imposed by high-resolution micro cone-beam CT. Approach. A novel deep-learning approach is developed to enable BLT-based tumor targeting and treatment planning for orthotopic rat GBM ...

OBJECTIVE: During precision irradiation of a preclinical lung tumour model, the tumour is subject to breathing motion and it can partially move out of the irradiation field. This work aimed to perform a quantitative analysis of the impact of respiratory motion on a mouse lung tumour irradiation with small fields. METHODS: A four-dimensional digital mouse whole body phantom (MOBY) with a virtual 4-mm spherical lung tumour at different locations ...