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The PhD defence and trial lecture are completely digital. The chair of the defence will moderate the disputation.
Ex auditorio questions: the chair of the defence will invite the audience to ask ex auditorio questions either oral or written using the chat function in zoom.
Trial lecture
Time and place: Feb 17, 2021; 3:15 PM, Zoom
Title: "Targeting radionuclides for cancer therapy"
Main research findings
Molecular radiotherapy is a targeted therapy, meaning it will attach to specific features of cancerous cells, allowing radiating nuclides to be brought close to them. In this work we have investigated a molecular radiotherapy called [177Lu]Lu-lilotomab satetraxetan which is currently being investigated in the first-in-man clinical trial LYMRIT 37-01, treating patients with indolent non-Hodgkins lymphoma (NHL). The treatment targets the CD37 antigen, which is found in abundance on malignant B-cells in some types of NHL. Our specific contribution has been to calculate the absorbed dose, meaning the amount of radiation, to normal organs and tumours of the patients. This is important because it contributes to the evaluation of the treatment and could potentially be used to tailor the treatment to future patients.
We used quantitative imaging to create a three-dimensional image of the distribution of the treatment in the patients, which we used to calculate the radiation energy absorbed in the normal tissues such as liver, spleen, kidneys, the red marrow as well as tumour tissue. Our first main finding was that red marrow is the critical organ, limiting the amount of treatment that can be administered. The degree of marrow toxicity can potentially be predicted based on the absorbed dose calculations well before they manifest in the patient. Furthermore, the clinical study included different treatment arms with variations in treatment protocol, so we were interested in investigating the differences between these treatment arms in terms of absorbed dose. Our second main finding was that a higher tumour to red marrow absorbed dose ratio was achieved in the group of patients pre-dosed with lilotomab (without the radiating nuclide) prior to treatment with [177Lu]Lu-lilotomab satetraxetan.
Candidate contact information
Phone number: 004748146588
Adjudication Committee
- Professor Mark Kaminski, Hematology Clinic - Rogel Cancer Center, University of Michigan, USA
- Professor Manuel Bardies, Cancer Research Institute of Montpellier, France
- Professor Ellen Karoline Henriksen, Department of Physics, University of Oslo, Norway
Supervisors
- Professor Eirik Malinen, Department of Physics, University of Oslo, Norway
- Professor Anne Catrine Træge Martinsen, Sunnaas Rehabilitation Hospital, Oslo, Norway
- Dr. Arne Kolstad, Department of Oncology, Oslo University Hospital, Oslo, Norway
- Associate Professor Caroline Stokke, Department of Diagnostic Physics, Oslo University Hospital, Oslo, Norway
Chair of defence
- Professor Andreas Görgen, Department of Physics, University of Oslo, Norway
Contact information to Department: Line Trosterud Resvold