Preclinical Voxel-Based Dosimetry in Theranostics: a Review

• Published in: Nuclear medicine and molecular imaging Vol. 54; no. 2; pp. 86 - 97
• Main Authors: Gupta, Arun, Lee, Min Sun, Kim, Joong Hyun, Lee, Dong Soo, Lee, Jae Sung
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Singapore Springer Singapore 01.04.2020; Springer Nature B.V; 대한핵의학회
• Subjects: Cardiology; Computer simulation; Computing time; Dosimeters; Dosimetry; Imaging; Mathematical analysis; Medicine; Medicine & Public Health; Nuclear Medicine; Oncology; Orthopedics; Radiation therapy; Radioisotopes; Radiology; Review; 방사선과학; Lu; Voxel-based dosimetry; Preclinical; Monte Carlo; Theranostic; 177Lu
• ISSN: 1869-3474; 1869-3482
• DOI: 10.1007/s13139-020-00640-z

Due to the increasing use of preclinical targeted radionuclide therapy (TRT) studies for the development of novel theranostic agents, several studies have been performed to accurately estimate absorbed doses to mice at the voxel level using reference mouse phantoms and Monte Carlo (MC) simulations. Accurate dosimetry is important in preclinical theranostics to interpret radiobiological dose-response relationships and to translate results for clinical use. Direct MC (DMC) simulation is believed to produce more realistic voxel-level dose distribution with high precision because tissue heterogeneities and nonuniform source distributions in patients or animals are considered. Although MC simulation is considered to be an accurate method for voxel-based absorbed dose calculations, it is time-consuming, computationally demanding, and often impractical in daily practice. In this review, we focus on the current status of voxel-based dosimetry methods applied in preclinical theranostics and discuss the need for accurate and fast voxel-based dosimetry methods for pretherapy absorbed dose calculations to optimize the dose computation time in preclinical TRT.