Research
Cancer and neurodegenerative diseases pose a major challenge to society. The World Health Organisation predicts a steady rise in these conditions, which are set to become the leading causes of death in developed countries. Imaging techniques are already widely used for diagnosis today. Around one in two cancer patients receives radiotherapy during the course of their illness. There is therefore a great need for research and development in the fields of diagnostics and therapy to conduct fundamental research into new applications and to rapidly translate new scientific solutions into clinical practice for the benefit of patients.
The LOEWE priority area ADMIT therefore aims to combine new imaging and computer-assisted techniques with advanced therapeutic strategies, thereby enabling early diagnosis and successful treatment of various forms of cancer and neurodegenerative diseases. The core idea behind the ADMIT project is that the development of new medical physics methods can improve image-guided therapy and, in some areas, open up new avenues of research. Primarily in the fields of radiology, oncology and neurology, novel, scientifically sound approaches are to be integrated and implemented in the synergistic areas of data processing, imaging and therapy.
ADMIT brings together the interdisciplinary and complementary expertise of various researchers from the three universities in Central Hesse: THM, UMR and JLU. The research group is complemented by clinical and industry partners, as well as long-standing international THM cooperation partners from Harvard University, Yale University and the University of Pennsylvania.
Project Area A | Range Modulator and Neutrons in Particle Therapy with Protons
FLASH irradiation is considered a promising method for significantly sparing healthy tissue during irradiation with high-energy ionizing radiation without impairing the effect on the tumor tissue. With the currently possible implementation of FLASH irradiation with protons or 12C ions, fragmentation produces neutrons, whose dose contribution in the patient in combination with the high biological effectiveness of the neutrons leads to a non-negligible risk of secondary malignancies. The extent of neutron exposure associated with the bolus material for the patient is currently unclear and must be investigated further for clinical use. Neutron local dose distributions and energy spectra are measured using thermoluminescence dosimetry and novel scintillation detectors. The data obtained will ...
Project Area D | Monte Carlo Simulations to Describe the Radiation Effect of Carbon Ions and Protons at the Cellular Level
Particle beams exhibit an elevated relative biological effectiveness (RBE) in comparison to photon beams. This implies that, for a given physical dose, the biological effect of particle beams is greater than that of photon beams. Conseuently, a lower physical dose is sufficient to kill the tumor cells. The calculation of the RBE is highly complex. For carbon ions, models such as the local effect model (LEM) and the microdosimetric-kinetic model (MKM) are used to model the RBE as a function of the radiation sensitivity of different tissue types. However, the uncertainties in the calculation of the RBE using these models are considerable, with deviations of up to 30%. Such models have not yet been clinically established for proton beams, although there are indications that protons may also ...
Project Area M | Adaptive Radiotherapy: Deep Learning for the Analysis of Daily Imaging
In image-guided radiotherapy, the focus has consistently been on patient-specific planned radiation and accurate dose deposition in the patient. In adaptive radiotherapy, the focus is placed on the patient's interfractional, anatomical changes in order to enable the daily optimized dose application. In most cases, conventional radiotherapy is fractionated over several weeks, so that weight loss, for example, can have a significant influence on the optimized dose distribution. Daily cone-beam CTs (CBCT) are used for patient positioning and provide data on the daily anatomy and, consequently, the dose distribution in the patient. In the case of interfractional changes, a distinction can be made between anatomy that undergoes daily changes due to fluctuations in bladder or bowel filling ...
Project Area I | Spectral Computed Tomography and Low-Dose Image Reconstruction Techniques
Computed tomography is one of the most important imaging techniques that can be used to create high-resolution, high-contrast 3D images of patients in a short space of time. The frequency of CT examinations is constantly increasing, but this also leads to an increased exposure to radiation in civilization. In addition to the problem of increasing radiation exposure, there is also a need for improvement in imaging. The presence of metallic implants can lead to issues with image reconstruction, particularly when they cause hardening and complete photon absorption (beam starvation), which - depending on their severity - can lead to streaks and changes in the area surrounding the implant, and can also make the images non-evaluable. Modified imaging techniques combined with spectral CT are ...
Project Area T | MR Imaging-Assisted Deep Brain Stimulation Therapy
The project aims to develop a DBS-compatible MRI hardware technology to evaluate the therapeutic DBS stimulation mechanisms using functional MRI. The focus is on improving the MR compatibility of DBS through innovative engineering approaches at the hardware level. This includes the use of a special transmitter coil and the development of an add-on system for parallel transmission at 3 Tesla MR field strength to reduce the interaction of electromagnetic fields and implanted electrodes. These hardware procedures should, for the first time, permit the generation of a customized E-field cancellation in order to make the full capacity of MR imaging available to DBS patients. In the various phases of the project, simulation-based developments will be carried out on the MR transmit system, ...