Enhancing Radiotherapy Precision with Conformal, Tissue-Equivalent Dosimeters

About This Grant

Project Summary/Abstract The precise administration of the prescribed radiation dose is critical for the safe and effective delivery of radiotherapy in cancer treatment. Current clinical dosimetry standards, however, are limited by insufficient accuracy, a lack of real- time monitoring, and poor spatial resolution, particularly in complex treatment scenarios. This technological gap presents an unmet clinical need for a technology that enables high-resolution dose verification at the point of care. The goal of this research is to develop skin-conformal, tissue-equivalent wearable sensor platforms to enhance the precision of radiation therapy. We will design, fabricate and validate a transformative dosimetry platform using printed flexible RADiation-sensitive Organic Field-Effect Transistors (RAD-OFETs). The central innovation is the use of organic semiconductors with radiation absorption properties that mimic human tissue, thereby obviating the need for dose-correction factors. Their inherent mechanical compliance further permits fabrication on flexible substrates for direct, conformal application to the skin, enabling high-fidelity in vivo dose mapping. Such a platform will enhance the precision of radiation delivery, allowing clinicians to optimize treatment plans in real time and improve patient outcomes. Supported by strong preliminary results, including a U.S. patent directly relevant to this project, this proposal directly addresses key challenges hindering clinical translation through three specific aims: (1) To engineer RAD-OFET architectures with monotonic, sensitive dosimetric response, (2) To scale the single-pixel device into uniform, large-area flexible RAD-OFET arrays, and (3) To validate dosimetric performance of flexible RAD-OFET arrays in settings mimicking clinical parameters. The research team is composed of the principal investigator, graduate and undergraduate students from the Physics Department, alongside collaborators from the School of Medicine. This project will strengthen biomedical research at Wake Forest University by providing an immersive, multidisciplinary research environment for students, who will be integrally involved in all project aspects. The primary deliverable will be a tissue-equivalent, large-area flexible dosimeter prototype robustly benchmarked to agree within ±5% of current state-of-the-art methods, and that can monitor the radiation dose with high spatial resolution. Successful completion of this program will generate pre-clinical data for a subsequent project aimed at securing regulatory approval for clinical trials.