Who is most likely to benefit from proton therapy to reduce treatment side effects
Official title: Project 1: Understanding normal tissue toxicity to identify patients most likely to benefit from proton therapy.
Funded at Massachusetts General Hospital · NIH-11184387 · Data updated 2026-11-12
This project compares proton and conventional radiation to find which patients may have fewer long-term side effects from proton therapy.
Quick facts
| Grant type | P01 program project |
|---|---|
| Study type | NIH-funded research |
| Funding institution | Massachusetts General Hospital NIH-funded |
| Lab location | 1 site (Boston, United States) |
| Project start | September 21, 2021 |
| Project end | August 31, 2026 |
| Funding year | 2025 |
| Award (this year) | $571,562 |
| NIH project number | 5P01CA261669-05 |
| Project ID | NIH-11184387 on NIH RePORTER |
Who could benefit from this research
✓Could help
Ideal candidates are people who have received or will receive proton or photon radiotherapy and can provide imaging, dosimetry, blood samples, and clinical follow-up data, especially for brain or nearby structures.
✕Less likely to help
People not treated with radiation or those without accessible treatment records, imaging, or follow-up data are unlikely to benefit directly from this work.
What this research studies
You would be part of work using patient records, scans, radiation dose maps, and blood tests from people treated with proton or photon therapy to look for patterns tied to later side effects. The team links where dose and biological effect (RBE) vary inside normal organs to imaging changes, blood biomarkers, and clinical toxicity outcomes. They use large clinical datasets from two hospitals to capture enough cases of uncommon toxicities so signals stand out from normal patient-to-patient variation. The goal is to find markers that help doctors choose the radiation type that best protects healthy tissue.
Why it matters
Potential benefit: Could help doctors personalize radiation choice so patients at higher risk of normal tissue damage receive the treatment that best limits side effects.
How similar studies have gone: Some prior studies suggest proton RBE varies and that protons can lower toxicity in select situations, but combining spatial RBE, dose maps, and biomarkers to predict clinical harms at scale is still relatively new.
Where this research is happening
-
Massachusetts General Hospital
Boston, United States Active
Researchers
- Principal investigator: Paganetti, Harald — Massachusetts General Hospital
- Study coordinator: Paganetti, Harald
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About this research
- This is an active NIH-funded research project — typically early-stage science, not a clinical trial accepting patient enrollment.
- Some NIH-funded labs run parallel clinical studies or seek volunteers for related work. To check, contact the principal investigator or institution listed above.
- For full project details, budget, and progress reports, visit the official NIH RePORTER page.