The goal of this master thesis training period is to work in the field of Monte-Carlo simulation for estimating the 3D absorbed dose, on real patient data, of a new radioimmunotherapy cancer treatment. This is a join work between members of the CREATIS laboratory and the nuclear medicine center LUMEN (Léon Bérard cancer center, Lyon).
Context
Radioimmunotherapy is a cancer treatment concept that uses an antibody labelled with a radionuclide to deliver radiation to tumor. The first in man Synfrizz study, lead by Prof. JY Blay, investigated the recommended dose for treating advanced synovial sarcoma with a new monoclonal antibody (mAb) named OTSA101. This mAb is radiolabeled with Yttrium 90 (90Y) that undergoes β− (electron) decay with a half-life of 64 hours and decay energy of 2.28 MeV. The ionizing radiation in tumor is expected to have anti-tumor effect. Guidance of the treatment is performed with associated imaging procedures. A pre-treatment SPECT/CT image of OTSA101 radiolabeled with Indium 111 (111In) leads to an estimation of the activity distribution and tumor uptake of the antibody. All imaging data of the 10 first patients included in this clinical trial are available: 6 CT/SPECT acquisitions per patient.
Method
The goal of the master student will be:
- to use SPECT/CT images to compute an estimated 3D distribution of the cumulated activity of the radionuclide.
- to perform Monte-Carlo simulation in order to estimate the 3D dose distribution inside the patient represented by a CT.
Our group has several years of expertise in Monte-Carlo (MC) simulations of particle-matter interactions. We are deeply involved in the OpenGate international collaboration that provides and supports the Gate Monte-Carlo software, very useful in medical physics.
Details
- Skill: Background in physics, medical physics and computer sciences
- Period: according to the master, about 6 months.
- Compensation: 1/3 SMIC / month
- Location : Léon Bérard cancer center (Lyon, France). CREATIS laboratory
Supervision, contact
- David Sarrut, directeur de recherche CNRS, david.sarrut@creatis.insa-lyon.fr
- Jean-Noël Badel, physicien medical, jean-noel.badel@lyon.unicancer.fr
Bibliography
Jan S, Benoit D, Becheva E, Carlier T, Cassol F, Descourt P, Frisson T, Grevillot L, Guigues L, Maigne L, Morel C, Perrot Y, Rehfeld N, Sarrut D, Schaart D R, Stute S, Pietrzyk U, Visvikis D, Zahra N and Buvat I 2011 GATE V6: a major enhancement of the GATE simulation platform enabling modelling of CT and radiotherapy. Physics in medicine and biology 56 881–901
Ljungberg M, Frey E, Sjögreen K, Liu X, Dewaraja Y and Strand S-E 2003 3D absorbed dose calculations based on SPECT: evaluation for 111-In/90-Y therapy using Monte Carlo simulations. Cancer biotherapy & radiopharmaceuticals 18 99–107
Loevinger R, Budinger T and Watson E 1988 MIRD primer for absorbed dose calculations (Society of Nuclear Medicine (New York, NY))
Stabin M 2006 Nuclear medicine dosimetry. Physics in medicine and biology 51 R187–202