Image-based cellular dosimetry for in-vitro radiobiology in the context of the ISOLPHARM project

The main objective of the thesis is to calculate the absorbed dose and the survival fraction of a culture of LNCaP (androgen-sensitive human prostate adenocarcinoma) cells irradiated with Ag-111 in the context of the ISOLPHARM project. This latter is headed by the Legnaro National Laboratories (LNL) of INFN and aims to produce high-purity radioisotopes for use in both diagnostic and therapeutic nuclear medicine applications. In particular, the latest experiment, named ADMIRAL, has the principal goal of evaluating the diagnostic and therapeutic power of radiopharmaceuticals containing the innovative radionuclide Ag-111. This study plays a key role in facilitating a comparative assessment of the Ag-111 radionuclide against other radionuclides used in radiotherapeutic applications. The findings will subsequently be compared with experimental data to be collected in the upcoming experiments at the University of Pavia (Experimental Surgery Laboratory, Department of Clinical-Surgical, Diagnostic and Pediatric Sciences). In addition, a chapter of the thesis will be about therapy simulations with Geant4-DNA with Lu-177 in collaboration with the Medical Physics division of the Spedali Civili di Brescia. In particular it will focus on the differences between the dose absorbed by cancer cells of bones and soft tissues.