Data Science Unit, Fondazione IRCCS Istituto Nazionale dei Tumori, Via Venezian 1, Milan, 20133, Italy.
MOX, Department of Mathematics, Politecnico di Milano, P.zza Da Vinci 32, Milan, 20133, Italy.
Comput Biol Med. 2024 May;173:108334. doi: 10.1016/j.compbiomed.2024.108334. Epub 2024 Mar 20.
Hypoxia contributes significantly to resistance in radiotherapy. Our research rigorously examines the influence of microvascular morphology on radiotherapy outcome, specifically focusing on how microvasculature shapes hypoxia within the microenvironment and affects resistance to a standard treatment regimen (30×2Gy). Our computational modeling extends to the effects of different radiation sources. For photons and protons, our analysis establishes a clear correlation between hypoxic volume distribution and treatment effectiveness, with vascular density and regularity playing a crucial role in treatment success. On the contrary, carbon ions exhibit distinct effectiveness, even in areas of intense hypoxia and poor vascularization. This finding points to the potential of carbon-based hadron therapy in overcoming hypoxia-induced resistance to RT. Considering that the spatial scale analyzed in this study is closely aligned with that of imaging data voxels, we also address the implications of these findings in a clinical context envisioning the possibility of detecting subvoxel hypoxia.
缺氧对放射治疗的抵抗有重要影响。我们的研究严格考察了微血管形态对放射治疗效果的影响，特别是关注微环境中微血管如何塑造缺氧状态以及如何影响对标准治疗方案（30×2Gy）的抵抗。我们的计算模型扩展到了不同辐射源的影响。对于光子和质子，我们的分析建立了缺氧体积分布与治疗效果之间的明确相关性，血管密度和规则性在治疗成功中起着关键作用。相比之下，碳离子即使在缺氧严重和血管生成不良的区域也表现出明显的效果。这一发现表明，基于碳的强子治疗有可能克服 RT 诱导的缺氧抵抗。鉴于本研究分析的空间尺度与成像数据体素紧密一致，我们还在临床环境中探讨了这些发现的意义，设想了检测亚体素缺氧的可能性。
