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Medical and health sciences
- Medical biophysics
- Image-guided interventions
- Interventional radiology
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Engineering and technology
- Biofluid mechanics
- Tissue and organ biomechanics
Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) is a primary form of liver cancer, ranking fourth for cancer mortality worldwide. When the tumor(s) cannot be surgically removed, intermediate HCC is being treated by transarterial chemo- or radioembolization. Using locoregional injections of microspheres, the main goal is to maximize damage to the tumor tissue, while minimizing damage to healthy parenchyma. However, current literature gives evidence of a large variety in treatment parameters and therapy outcomes, underlining that these therapies are neither standardized nor optimized. Moreover, options for pre-treatment planning are limited and severely lacking in accuracy. Hence, there is a clear need for the development of innovative methodologies to ensure patient-specific and accurate pre-treatment planning for transarterial embolization procedures. In this project, we will investigate, develop and validate a novel computational fluid dynamics (CFD)-based dosimetry platform that can assist to pre-operatively determine the optimal treatment strategy for each individual patient. With this highly original work, we will go beyond the state-of-the-art and take a big step forward to pave the way towards efficient and optimal personalized treatment planning for transarterial radio-embolization interventions for liver cancer.