Linear energy transfer (LET) dependencies for understanding pancreatic tumor control and relevant molecular endpoints in support of RBE-based heavy-ion radiotherapy

Despite decades of research, pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma remains one of the deadliest of cancers, but recent advances in heavy-ion radiotherapy and in ferroptosis-inducing drugs may begin to change this. This proposal will investigate the relationship of linear energy transfer with tumor killing and associated endpoints, as well as how these interact with the induction of ferroptosis. The knowledge gained will help to develop optimized approaches to heavy ion radiotherapy, potentially making it both more clinically effective and more cost effective to improve outcomes for pancreatic cancer and other hard-to-treat tumors.