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ORIGINAL RESEARCH article

Front. Physiol.
Sec. Computational Physiology and Medicine
Volume 15 - 2024 | doi: 10.3389/fphys.2024.1491144
This article is part of the Research Topic Multiscale cancer modeling, in silico oncology, in silico psycho-oncology and digital (virtual) twins in the cancer domain View all articles

Personalised in silico biomechanical modelling towards the optimisation of high dose-rate brachytherapy planning and treatment against prostate cancer

Provisionally accepted
Myrianthi Hadjicharalambous Myrianthi Hadjicharalambous 1Yiannis Roussakis Yiannis Roussakis 2George Bourantas George Bourantas 3,4Eleftherios Ioannou Eleftherios Ioannou 1Karol Miller Karol Miller 4Paul Doolan Paul Doolan 2Iosif Strouthos Iosif Strouthos 2Constantinos Zamboglou Constantinos Zamboglou 2Vasileios Vavourakis Vasileios Vavourakis 1,5*
  • 1 University of Cyprus, Nicosia, Cyprus
  • 2 German Oncology Centre, Limassol, Cyprus
  • 3 University of Patras, Patras, Western Greece, Greece
  • 4 University of Western Australia, Perth, Western Australia, Australia
  • 5 University College London, London, England, United Kingdom

The final, formatted version of the article will be published soon.

    High dose-rate brachytherapy presents a promising therapeutic avenue for prostate cancer management, involving the temporary implantation of catheters which deliver radioactive sources to the cancerous site. However, as catheters puncture and penetrate the prostate, tissue deformation is evident which may affect the accuracy and efficiency of the treatment. In this work, a data-driven in silico modelling procedure is proposed to simulate brachytherapy while accounting for prostate biomechanics. Comprehensive magnetic resonance and transrectal ultrasound images acquired prior, during and post brachytherapy are employed for model personalisation, while the therapeutic procedure is simulated via sequential insertion of multiple catheters in the prostate gland. The medical imaging data are also employed for model evaluation, thus, demonstrating the potential of the proposed in silico procedure to be utilised pre-and intra-operatively in the clinical setting.

    Keywords: in silico Modelling, meshless, simulation, Brachytherapy, Radiotherapy, Drug delivery, Preoperative planning

    Received: 04 Sep 2024; Accepted: 11 Oct 2024.

    Copyright: © 2024 Hadjicharalambous, Roussakis, Bourantas, Ioannou, Miller, Doolan, Strouthos, Zamboglou and Vavourakis. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

    * Correspondence: Vasileios Vavourakis, University of Cyprus, Nicosia, Cyprus

    Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.