An Innovative CFD-based Dosimetry and Pre-treatment Planning Platform to Support Personalized Transarterial Therapies for Liver Cancer

TARE has become an established locoregional treatment for HCC, the most common form of primary liver cancer. During TARE, radioactive microspheres are injected through a microcatheter in the hepatic arteries to irradiate the tumor from within. The minimally invasive nature of this therapy makes it an important option for patients who are ineligible for surgery. However, despite its clinical relevance, treatment success remains variable between patients. A challenge in TARE is the limited ability to predict how the injected microspheres will spread throughout the arterial network of the liver. As a result, microspheres do not always deposit homogenously within the tumor, and part of the injected dose may end up in healthy liver tissue. This may reduce treatment efficacy while increasing the risk of complications. Current pre-treatment planning and dosimetry approaches are not completely able to predict the resulting radiation dose. The goal of this study is to develop a methodology that enables better understanding and prediction of microsphere distribution and radiation dose during TARE using patient-specific 3D models. These models will be constructed from clinical imaging data such as CT, MRI, PET, SPECT, or DSA, and will be used to analyze hepatic arterial anatomy and dose deposition patterns. By studying these relationships, the project aims to identify which anatomical and procedural factors influence microsphere transport and dose delivery, and how these insights can contribute to improved pre-treatment planning. The clinical part of the study consists solely of collecting retrospective and prospective imaging and treatment data from patients undergoing TARE, without altering clinical workflow. Therefore, no additional risk or discomfort is introduced for participating patients. The collected data will serve as the foundation for developing and validating the 3D models. In the long term, the resulting insights may help optimize catheter positioning, injection parameters, and dose planning, with the ambition of achieving more effective, personalized, and safer TARE treatments.