Abstract: Recently, there has been a lot of interest in lymphocyte depletion following radiotherapy. It has been argued that the observed lymphopenia is caused by irradiation of lymphocytes circulating in the blood. To facilitate verification of this hypothesis, we have developed a computational framework which can simulate blood flow. The backbone of this framework is a stochastic compartment model, in which different compartments can be replaced by explicit vasculature models in order to better capture the spatial component of the problem. Thus, treating the blood as a dynamic organ at risk, accurate blood dose distributions can be obtained for different treatment regiments. In this talk I will explain the workings of the model, present its application to lung patient data, and discuss some complicating factors regarding the kinetics of lymphocytes versus blood.

About the speaker: After his master in High-Energy physics, Chris made a bit of a career switch when he applied for a PhD position at the Netherlands Cancer Institute. He obtained his PhD in adaptive radiotherapy under supervision of Jan-Jakob Sonke. He moved to Boston in the beginning of this year where he started as a postdoctoral fellow at MGH.