Principal Investigator: Erich Griessler
Project Team: Johannes Starkbaum, Florian Winkler, Thomas Czypionka, Sophie Fößleitner
Project Duration: 2020-2023
Funding: FWF, I 4732 Internationale Projekte, ERA; ERA PerMed Call 2019; ERA PerMed, Personalised Medicine: Multidisciplinary Research Towards Implementation

Project Information: The project aims for the advancement of cancer therapy through injection of (radioactive) substances to the patient body that are to destruct tumor cells (e.g., radionuclide-, targeted- or alpha therapy). For better and more individualized detection of tumors and the spread of the injected substances, the study uses pre-treatment clinical data, a novel gamma camera for bedside whole-body imaging and imaging datasets. It combines statistics (e.g., Monte Carlo simulations) with machine learning tools for advanced analysis of images and clinical data. The personalized treatment shall include better detection of tumors and an adaption of the radiation dose from patient to patient, also to reduce side effects. POPEYE includes partners from Greece, France and Austria and runs until April 2023.

Our task, at IHS, is to reflect on organizational, ethical and economic impacts of this new approach in cancer treatment both for patients, medical personnel and at institutional level. We thus aim to understand potential social and economic impacts and how this new approach might be adapted in order to meet ethical requirements, to foster equality for different societal groups, and to avoid escalating costs.