# Academic-Industry Partnership for the Translation of a 4D in vivo Dosimetry Approach for Radiation Therapy

> **NIH NIH R37** · UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA-IRVINE · 2023 · $392,615

## Abstract

The Overall Objective of this application is to enable in vivo dosimetry during radiation therapy in cancer patient
to the end-user– the medical physicist. Our Hypothesis is that X-ray-induced Acoustic Computed tomography
(XACT) can be used for 4D in vivo dosimetry in patients. In XACT, pulsed x-rays are absorbed and converted to
heat. The resulting thermoelastic expansion generates a 3D acoustic wave, which can be detected by acoustic
detectors to form images. The amplitude of the acoustic waves is proportional to X-ray absorption, and therefore
encodes dose information. Our overall strategy is to design/construct a 3D XACT dosimetric scanner, and to
test/refine the imaging prototype under clinical conditions based on an Academic-Industrial partnership between
University of Oklahoma (OU) and PhotoSound Technologies Inc. Our specific aims are: (Specific aim 1)
Evaluate the basis of the XACT imaging in radiotherapy dosimetry; (Specific aim 2) Develop a 3D XACT
imaging system for clinical implementation; and (Specific aim 3) Validate the performance of XACT under
clinical conditions. This discovery is the first time in history that radiation dose in tissue could be directly
visualized with high spatial and temporal resolution. If successful, the ability to localize the radiation beam and
map the radiation dose will enable a paradigm shift towards high-precision radiotherapy.

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 10705086
- **Project number:** 5R37CA240806-05
- **Recipient organization:** UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA-IRVINE
- **Principal Investigator:** Yong Chen
- **Activity code:** R37 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** NIH
- **Fiscal year:** 2023
- **Award amount:** $392,615
- **Award type:** 5
- **Project period:** 2019-09-20 → 2024-08-31

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/10705086

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 10705086, Academic-Industry Partnership for the Translation of a 4D in vivo Dosimetry Approach for Radiation Therapy (5R37CA240806-05). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-05-26 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/10705086. Licensed CC0.

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