'Evaluation of injectable fiducial markers for improved alignment and soft tissue targeting in small animal radiotherapy'.

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Animal models are central for the development of medical therapies including radiotherapy, however, experiments often fail to accurately replicate clinical scenarios resulting in only approximately one third of highly cited animal research studies translating at the level of a human randomised trial. The translational impact of animal studies may be improved by refining experimental approaches to align more closely with clinical trials. This project will aim to reverse translated the approach of using injectable fiducial markers to address the limitations associated with accurate soft tissue targeting, set-up error and target position uncertainty in small animal radiotherapy studies.The overall objective of this study is to evaluate a novel injectable fiducial marker (LFM) in small animals to improve alignment and targeting of soft tissue anatomy in preclinical radiotherapy studies. Based on this main objective, studies have been designed with careful consideration of the 3Rs across the following 3 aims: 1) Physical characterisation and simulation of LFM effects for preclinical CBCT and MRI imaging; 2) Assessment of LFM performance in multiple tumour and normal tissue sites in vivo and 3) Characterisation of physical dose perturbation and biological response following irradiation.The project will be performed in collaboration with Nanovi, a medical technology company specializing in the development of innovative soft tissue markers to enhance precision and raise standards for better outcomes in radiotherapy and surgery.