RAPID: An Extremely Fast Monte Carlo Dose Computing Software for Nuclear Medicine

PROJECT SUMMARY and ABSTRACT The clinical outcome of radiation therapy depends on delivering the highest possible absorbed dose to the tumor swhile limiting the dose to normal tissuesUnfortunatelyunlike external beam radiotherapyEBRTcurrent RT prescription methods do not consider absorbed dose to individual patients but instead use empirically derived or standard methodsThusup toof these patients receive sub optimal prescriptions leading to sub optimal clinical outcomes including under dosing of the tumor or severe toxicity in healthy tissuesClearly this violates the basic tenants of radiation oncology because the radiation doses received by these patients are neither justified nor optimizedOur solutionRAPIDRadionuclide Assessment Platform for Internal Dosimetrywill be the first commercialized desktop Monte Carlo radionuclide dosimetry systemIt will utilize a heterogeneous CPU GPUGraphical Processing Unitsarchitecture that will minimize the computational complexity stemming from problems encountered in RT dosimetryRAPID will provide accurate radiation dosimetry results within a clinically acceptable timeframe of less thanminutesThe long term objective of this project is to develop the first FDA approved patient specific treatment planning software for RT that is completely accessibleHealth care systemsdrug companiesand clinical researchers are expected to access this technology to provide the best possible care for cancer patients PROJECT NARRATIVE Millions of patients are treated with radionuclide therapy each yearUnfortunatelycurrent radionuclide prescription methods do not consider absorbed dose to individual patients but instead use empirically derived or standard methods leading to suboptimal treatment outcomes in some patientsOur solutionRAPIDRadionuclide Assessment Platform for Internal Dosimetrywill be the first commercialized Monte Carlo radionuclide dosimetry software that will permit patient specific treatment planning