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

动物模型是包括放射治疗在内的医学疗法发展的核心，然而，实验往往不能准确地复制临床情景，导致只有大约三分之一的高引用动物研究在人类随机试验水平上转化。动物研究的转化影响可以通过改进实验方法来与临床试验更紧密地结合来改善。该项目旨在逆转使用可注射基准标记物的方法，以解决小动物放射治疗研究中与准确软组织靶向、设置误差和靶标位置不确定性相关的局限性。本研究的总体目标是在小动物中评估一种新的可注射基准标记物（LFM），以改善临床前放疗研究中软组织解剖的对准和靶向性。基于这一主要目标，研究在设计时仔细考虑了以下3个目标的3Rs: 1)临床前CBCT和MRI成像的LFM效应的物理表征和模拟；2)评估LFM在体内多个肿瘤和正常组织部位的性能；3)辐照后物理剂量扰动和生物反应的表征。该项目将与Nanovi合作进行，Nanovi是一家医疗技术公司，专门从事创新软组织标记物的开发，以提高精度和提高放射治疗和手术效果的标准。

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.