Related Experiment Video
Updated: Jul 13, 2026
Chemotherapy-induced Vascular Toxicity - Real-time In vivo Imaging of Vessel Impairment
Published on: January 7, 2015
Microvascular health status as a novel predictor of acute side effects after radiotherapy: a quantitative analysis
Alessandra Catalano1, Sophie Materne2, Fabio Badenchini3
1Data Science Unit, Fondazione IRCCS Istituto Nazionale dei Tumori, Via Giacomo Venezian 1, 20133 Milan, Italy; MOX, Department of Mathematics, Politecnico di Milano, Piazza Leonardo da Vinci 32, 20133 Milan, Italy.
Purpose:
To quantitatively assess how microvascular conditions estimated via a non-invasive method can predict acute side effects after radiotherapy in patients with breast, prostate, and head and neck cancers.
Materials And Methods:
We studied 314 patients, assessing their MicroVascular Health Score (MVHS) before radiotherapy using a sublingual microscope that records videos of red blood cells in microvessels, analyses the microvasculature's functional and geometric properties, and calculates the MVHS. The MVHS was incorporated into a logistic model to predict the risk of developing acute radio-induced both alone and in combination with dose.
Results:
A clear quantitative association between MVHS and side effects was observed in the overall population (OR = 0.68, p = 0.001). A 1-unit decrease in MVHS was associated with a 31.9% increased risk of radiation-induced symptoms across cancer sites. In the breast subgroup, dose factors significantly affected side effect risk (OR for D200cc to the skin: 1.05 per 1 Gy; OR for D20cc: 1.14 per 1 Gy; OR for V20Gy: 1.01 per 1 cc; all p < 0.05). The D20cc model had the highest AUC (0.69), and adding MVHS further improved it to 0.76.
Conclusion:
The study strongly linked microvascular health to the risk of acute radio-induced symptoms, suggesting that this could inform predictive models and customise treatments based on patient vascular status.
