# Real-time prostate lesion tracking during SBRT

> **NIH NIH R01** · UT SOUTHWESTERN MEDICAL CENTER · 2020 · $351,181

## Abstract

Multiple randomized clinical trials have shown that delivery of higher radiation doses to the prostate results in
improved tumor control rates in prostate cancer radiation therapy (RT). As local recurrence mostly occurs at the
primary tumor, particularly for high-risk patients, additional dose escalation is expected to improve the treatment
outcome. However, the application of dose escalation for prostate RT is greatly limited by the tolerance of nearby
healthy tissues that cannot adequately be excluded from the radiation field. This limitation can be overcome by
dose painting, where a higher dose is applied to the prostate tumor only instead of the whole prostate gland.
Stereotactic body radiation therapy (SBRT) offers reduced treatment time, convenience, and possibly increased
treatment efficacy as compared to the conventionally fraction scheme. UTSW is currently conducting a dose
escalation trial using SBRT for high-risk prostate cancer patients with an integrated dose boost on MRI-visualized
prostate tumor. However, prostate can move and deform during the beam delivery. To ensure the escalated
dose is actually delivered to tumor regions as planned, a reliable tumor tracking method is urgently needed.
While intra-prostatic tumors can be identified by multi-parametric MRI (mpMRI) for treatment planning,
intrafraction tumor tracking during the beam delivery is not achievable with mpMRI. In contrast, ultrasound offers
a cost-effective and real-time imaging with high soft tissue contrast. However, conventional ultrasound
techniques only provide anatomic structure of the prostate gland without the capability to differentiate tumor
region from the rest of the prostate gland. Temporal enhanced ultrasound (TeUS) has emerged as a new
paradigm for prostate tissue characterization by analyzing the time-series ultrasound images with advanced
machine learning techniques. In this project, we aim to develop, optimize and evaluate an innovative TeUS
based intra-prostatic tumor tracking method to guide SBRT with an integrated dose boost for high-risk prostate
cancer patients. The specific aims are: 1) Develop TeUS-based intra-prostatic tumor delineation for guiding
focused dose escalation; 2) Integrate and validate TeUS-based tumor tracking system during SBRT; and 3)
Evaluate clinical gain of TeUS guided SBRT for high risk prostate cancer patients. Successful completion of the
proposed project will lead to the development and validation of a low-cost yet highly accurate TeUS guided
system for targeted prostate cancer RT. With enhanced real-time visualization of tumor, the use of TeUS for RT
guidance will lead to better treatment efficacy and reduced toxicity.

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 9915917
- **Project number:** 5R01EB027898-02
- **Recipient organization:** UT SOUTHWESTERN MEDICAL CENTER
- **Principal Investigator:** Raquibul Hannan
- **Activity code:** R01 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** NIH
- **Fiscal year:** 2020
- **Award amount:** $351,181
- **Award type:** 5
- **Project period:** 2019-05-01 → 2023-01-31

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/9915917

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 9915917, Real-time prostate lesion tracking during SBRT (5R01EB027898-02). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-05-21 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/9915917. Licensed CC0.

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