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Updated: Sep 9, 2025
Irradiator Commissioning and Dosimetry for Assessment of LQ α and β Parameters, Radiation Dosing Schema, and in vivo Dose Deposition
Published on: March 11, 2021
An open-source irradiation and data-handling framework for pre-clinical ion-beam research
Isselmou Abdarahmane1, Lorenz Wolf2, Peter Kuess2
1Division of Medical Physics, Department of Radiation Oncology, Medical University of Vienna, Währinger Gürtel 18-20, A-1090 Vienna, Austria; Competence Center for Preclinical Imaging and Biomedical Engineering, Faculty of Health, University of Applied Sciences, Johannes-Gutenberg-Straße 3, A-2700 Wiener Neustadt, Austria.
This study presents an open-source data pipeline for pre-clinical particle therapy research, enabling seamless image processing and treatment planning across multiple vendors. The framework successfully validated image-guided pre-clinical ion-beam research, from planning to response assessment.
Area of Science:
- Medical Physics
- Pre-clinical Research
- Radiation Oncology
Background:
- Pre-clinical animal studies are crucial for understanding radiation effects in particle therapy.
- Current small animal research often relies on customized, in-house solutions, limiting broader application.
- A need exists for standardized, open-source tools in pre-clinical particle irradiation research.
Purpose of the Study:
- To introduce a comprehensive, open-source data processing pipeline for pre-clinical particle irradiation research.
- To enable multi-vendor compatibility for imaging and treatment planning systems.
- To establish a technological platform for image-guided pre-clinical ion-beam research.
Main Methods:
- Developed an open-source pipeline integrating ultra-high-field micro MRI, micro CT, micro PET, and CBCT.
- Utilized 3D Slicer for image postprocessing (registration, resampling, cropping, format conversion).
- Employed RaySearch infrastructure for treatment planning, dose calculation, and beam delivery, with DICOM metadata modification for compatibility.
Main Results:
- A Python-based DICOM processor successfully converted vendor-specific data into a treatment planning system (TPS)-compatible format.
- Seamless import of multimodality images, dose, and LETD maps into the TPS was achieved.
- Workflow validation in five mice demonstrated minimal contralateral dose (≤ 0.03 Gy) and enabled radiomics analysis.
Conclusions:
- An open-source, in-house developed irradiation and data-handling framework was established.
- This framework serves as a technological platform for image-guided pre-clinical ion-beam research.
- The pipeline covers all essential steps from treatment planning to non-invasive response assessment.
