# Developing whole-body computational phantoms for blood dosimetry to model the impact of radiation on the immune system

> **NIH NIH R01** · MASSACHUSETTS GENERAL HOSPITAL · 2021 · $490,465

## Abstract

Project Abstract / Summary
This proposal will develop methods to quantify the interaction of radiation with the immune system, particularly
the blood (i.e., circulating lymphocytes). We envision that future treatment planning in radiation oncology will
treat lymphatic nodes and the blood as organs at risk and include them in the treatment optimization process
so as to influence the level at which the radiation treatment impacts the immune system of the patient. During
radiation therapy, depletion of circulating lymphocytes originates mainly from (1) immediate cell killing during
irradiation of blood vessels, and thus circulating lymphocytes, within the treatment field and (2) to a lesser
extent, the radiation dose to lymphocytes residing within lymphoid organs that can mobilize their lymphocyte
population upon systemic depletion.
There are currently no whole-body computational phantoms available that can facilitate the calculation of blood
or lymphocyte dose-volume histograms. However, this tool is a prerequisite to the use of bio-mathematical
models for clinical trial design. The phantoms to be developed in this study will be the first to fill this urgent
need for the radiation therapy and research communities. In addition to the overall innovative nature of this
project, several of our methods are novel and have never been employed in our field:
• The first use of tetrahedral mesh structures to model blood vessels (SA1)
• The first implementation of a whole-body compartment model for blood flow (SA2)
• The first four-dimensional modeling of blood flow using vasculature structures (SA3)
• The first model of the mouse vasculature for pre-clinical studies (SA4)

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 10214573
- **Project number:** 5R01CA248901-02
- **Recipient organization:** MASSACHUSETTS GENERAL HOSPITAL
- **Principal Investigator:** WESLEY E BOLCH
- **Activity code:** R01 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** NIH
- **Fiscal year:** 2021
- **Award amount:** $490,465
- **Award type:** 5
- **Project period:** 2020-07-13 → 2025-06-30

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/10214573

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 10214573, Developing whole-body computational phantoms for blood dosimetry to model the impact of radiation on the immune system (5R01CA248901-02). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-05-25 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/10214573. Licensed CC0.

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