LAB MEMBERS’ PEER-REVIEWED PUBLICATIONS SINCE 2018

2025

Space- and time-defined Monte Carlo dosimetry explains ovarian cancer cell viability in targeted alpha-particle therapy with [211At]PTT

Onecha VV, Suarez-Garcia D, Bosque JJ, Lee H, Simpkins F, Gitto SB, Pryma DA, Bertolet A. Int J Radiat Oncol Biol Phys (2025). Accepted. Background: Radiopharmaceutical Therapy (RPT) aims to irradiate tumors using antibodies or small molecules chelated with radioisotopes that target tumor cells. The biological response resulting from the complex interplay between radioisotope decay…

In response to Yu and Chen: Proton FLASH-Arc Therapy: Bridging feasibility to clinical utility

Rothwell B, Bertolet A, Schuemann J. Radiotherapy and Oncology (2024). We sincerely appreciate the insightful comments from Yu and Chen [1] regarding our recent study on Proton FLASH-Arc Therapy (PFAT) [2]. It is encouraging to see the interest in this proposed modality, and we welcome the opportunity to further discuss key aspects of dose-rate optimization,…

Dosimetrically coupled multiscale tetrahedral mesh models of human liver vasculature: implications for radiopharmaceutical dosimetry of both organ blood and parenchyma

Dawson RJ, Huesa-Berral C, Carter L, Beekman C, Choi C, Shin B, Bobić M, Cogno N, Withrow JD, Jokisch DW, et al. Phys Med Biol (2025). Purpose: To develop a computational framework coupling multiscale vascular models of the human liver for improved radiation dosimetry calculations that clearly distinguish the absorbed dose to tissue parenchyma and…

Exploring biochemical considerations for diffusive alpha radiation therapy (DaRT) models

Dukakis P, Bosque JJ, Bertolet A. Physica Medica (2025). Diffusing alpha-emitting Radiation Therapy (DaRT) is a cancer treatment currently undergoing clinical trials. DaRT utilizes localized 224-Radium (224Ra) seeds to deliver high linear energy transfer (LET) alpha radiation. Its main advantage over other alpha radiation treatments is that the diffusion of 224Ra decay chain products allows…

Real-time dose reconstruction in proton therapy from in-beam PET measurements

Onecha VV, Espinosa-Rodriguez A, Soneira-Landín C, Arias-Valcayo F, Gaitán-Dominguez S, Martinez-Nouvilas V, García-Díez M, Ibáñez P, España S, Sanchez-Parcerisa D, et al. Phys Med Biol (2025). Objective. Clinical implementation of in-beam positron emission tomography (PET) monitoring in proton therapy (PT) requires the integration of an online fast and reliable dose calculation engine. This manuscript reports…

Review of the geometrical developments in GEANT4-DNA: from a biological perspective

Khanna R, Reinwald Y, Hugtenburg R, Bertolet A, Serjouei A. Reviews in Physics (2025). GEANT4-DNA is an expansion of the widely utilised GEANT4 Monte Carlo toolkit. This extension focuses on modelling the physical, chemical, and biological stages of ionising radiation for radiobiological applications at cellular and DNA level interactions. To date, review papers on GEANT4-DNA…

Sequencing microsphere selective internal radiotherapy after external beam radiotherapy for hepatocellular carcinoma: proof of concept of a synergistic combination

Huesa-Berral C, Terry JF, Kunz L, Bertolet A. British Journal of Radiology (2025). Objectives:This study aims to explore the synergistic effects of combining stereotactic body radiation therapy (SBRT) and selective internal radiation therapy (SIRT) in that specific sequence for treating hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC), particularly in patients at high risk of radiation-induced liver disease (RILD). Methods:We…

SPECT/CT Dosimetry of Bronchial Artery99m Tc Macroaggregated Albumin Injection in Pulmonary Malignancies: Feasibility Evaluation of Bronchial Artery 90Y Radioembolization

Wehrenberg-Klee E, An T, Heidari P, Huesa-Berral C, Dreher MR, Eldridge A, Fowers K, Schuemann J, Bertolet A. Radiology (2025) SPECT/CT dosimetric analysis of technetium 99m macroaggregated albumin injected via the bronchial artery for pulmonary malignancy suggests that bronchial artery yttrium 90 radioembolization could be an alternative treatment for patients unable to receive external beam…

Investigation of hydrogen peroxide yields and oxygen consumption in high dose rate irradiation: a TOPAS-nBio Monte Carlo study

Shin W-G, D-Kondo JN, Ramos-Méndez J, LaVerne JA, Rothwell B, Bertolet A, McNamara A, Faddegon B, Paganetti H, Schuemann J. Phys Med Biol (2025) Objective. TOPAS-nBio enables users to simulate dose rate-dependent radiation chemical yields in water radiolysis accounting for inter-track and long-term chemistry for pulsed irradiation. This study aims to extend the TOPAS-nBio chemistry…

Prognostic Role of Patient, Tumour and Radiomic Factors Influencing Outcomes in Dogs With Thyroid Cancer Treated With Iodine‐131

Chamseddine I, Cowan C, Donnelly L, Abergel RJ, Schuemann J, Bertolet A, Maitz CA. Vet Comparative Oncology (2025) Radioactive iodine therapy (I-131) is widely used in both human and veterinary medicine for treating thyroid cancer, utilising the common biological behaviour of thyroid tissues. Recognising the need to better understand the prognostic factors affecting heterogeneous treatment…

2024

Monte Carlo dosimetric analyses on the use of 90Y-IsoPet intratumoral therapy in canine subjects

Bobić M, Huesa-Berral C, Terry JF, Kunz L, Schuemann J, Fisher DR, Maitz CA, Bertolet A. Phys Med Biol (2024). Objective. To investigate different dosimetric aspects of 90Y-IsoPet™ intratumoral therapy in canine soft tissue sarcomas, model the spatial spread of the gel post-injection, evaluate absorbed dose to clinical target volumes, and assess dose distributions and…

A framework for in-field and out-of-field patient specific secondary cancer risk estimates from treatment plans using the TOPAS Monte Carlo system

Meyer I, Peters N, Tamborino G, Lee H, Bertolet A, Faddegon B, Mille MM, Lee C, Schuemann J, Paganetti H. Phys Med Biol (2024). Objective. To allow the estimation of secondary cancer risks from radiation therapy treatment plans in a comprehensive and user-friendly Monte Carlo (MC) framework. Method. Patient planning computed tomography scans were extended…

Decoding Patient Heterogeneity Influencing Radiation-Induced Brain Necrosis

Chamseddine I, Shah K, Lee H, Ehret F, Schuemann J, Bertolet A, Shih HA, Paganetti H. Clinical Cancer Research (2024). Purpose:In radiotherapy (RT) for brain tumors, patient heterogeneity masks treatment effects, complicating the prediction and mitigation of radiation-induced brain necrosis. Therefore, understanding this heterogeneity is essential for improving outcome assessments and reducing toxicity. Experimental Design:We…

AMBER: A Modular Model for Tumor Growth, Vasculature and Radiation Response

Kunz LV, Bosque JJ, Nikmaneshi M, Chamseddine I, Munn LL, Schuemann J, Paganetti H, Bertolet A. Bull Math Biol (2024). Computational models of tumor growth are valuable for simulating the dynamics of cancer progression and treatment responses. In particular, agent-based models (ABMs) tracking individual agents and their interactions are useful for their flexibility and ability…

FLIP: a novel method for patient-specific dose quantification in circulating blood in large vessels during proton or photon external beam radiotherapy treatments

García-Cardosa M, Meiriño R, Calvo FA, Antolín E, Aguilar B, Vidorreta M, Cuevas R, Barbés B, Huesa-Berral C, Azcona J-D, et al. Phys Med Biol (2024). Purpose. To provide a novel and personalized method (FLIP, FLow and Irradiation Personalized) using patient-specific circulating blood flows and individualized time-dependent irradiation distributions, to quantify the dose delivered to…

Proton FLASH-arc therapy (PFAT): A feasibility study for meeting FLASH dose-rate requirements in the clinic

Rothwell B, Bertolet A, Schuemann J. Radiotherapy and Oncology (2024) Background and purposeProton arc therapy and FLASH radiotherapy (FLASH-RT) each offer unique advantages in proton therapy. However, clinical translation of FLASH-RT faces challenges in defining and delivering high dose rates. We propose the use of proton FLASH-arc therapy (PFAT) to leverage the benefits of arc…

MIDOS: a novel stochastic model towards a treatment planning system for microsphere dosimetry in liver tumors

Huesa-Berral C, Withrow JD, Dawson RJ, Beekman C, Bolch WE, Paganetti H, Wehrenberg-Klee E, Bertolet A. Eur J Nucl Med Mol Imaging (2024) Purpose: Transarterial radioembolization (TARE) procedures treat liver tumors by injecting radioactive microspheres into the hepatic artery. Currently, there is a critical need to optimize TARE towards a personalized dosimetry approach. To this…

2023

  • Garcia-Prada CD, Carmes L, Atis S, Parach A, Bertolet A, Jarlier M, Poty S, Garcia DS, Shin WG, Du Manoir S, Schuemann J, Tillement O, Lux F, Constanzo J, Pouget JP. Gadolinium-Based Nanoparticles Sensitize Ovarian Peritoneal Carcinomatosis to Targeted Radionuclide Therapy. J Nucl Med. 2023 12 01; 64(12):1956-1964. PMID: 37857502; PMCID: PMC10690115.
  • Bertolet A, Chamseddine I, Paganetti H, Schuemann J. The complexity of DNA damage by radiation follows a Gamma distribution: insights from the Microdosimetric Gamma Model. Front Oncol. 2023; 13:1196502. PMID: 37397382; PMCID: PMC10313124.
  • Suárez-García D, Cortés-Giraldo MA, Bertolet A. A systematic analysis of the particle irradiation data ensemble in the key of the microdosimetric kinetic model: Should clonogenic data be used for clinical relative biological effectiveness? Radiother Oncol. 2023 08; 185:109730. PMID: 37301260; PMCID: PMC10528084.
  • Zhang Q, Gerweck LE, Cascio E, Gu L, Yang Q, Dong X, Huang P, Bertolet A, Nesteruk KP, Sung W, McNamara AL, Schuemann J. Absence of Tissue-Sparing Effects in Partial Proton FLASH Irradiation in Murine Intestine. Cancers (Basel). 2023 Apr 13; 15(8). PMID: 37190197; PMCID: PMC10137009.
  • Bobic M, Lalonde A, Nesteruk KP, Lee H, Nenoff L, Gorissen BL, Bertolet A, Busse PM, Chan AW, Winey BA, Sharp GC, Verburg JM, Lomax AJ, Paganetti H. Large anatomical changes in head-and-neck cancers – A dosimetric comparison of online and offline adaptive proton therapy. Clin Transl Radiat Oncol. 2023 May; 40:100625. PMID: 37090849; PMCID: PMC10120292.
  • Zhang Q, Gerweck LE, Cascio E, Yang Q, Huang P, Niemierko A, Bertolet A, Nesteruk KP, McNamara A, Schuemann J. Proton FLASH effects on mouse skin at different oxygen tensions. Phys Med Biol. 2023 02 27; 68(5). PMID: 36731139; PMCID: PMC11164666.

2022

  • Bertolet A, Ramos-Méndez J, McNamara A, Yoo D, Ingram S, Henthorn N, Warmenhoven JW, Faddegon B, Merchant M, McMahon SJ, Paganetti H, Schuemann J. Impact of DNA Geometry and Scoring on Monte Carlo Track-Structure Simulations of Initial Radiation-Induced Damage. Radiat Res. 2022 09 01; 198(3):207-220. PMID: 35767729; PMCID: PMC9458623.
  • Miras H, Terrón JA, Bertolet A, Leal A. Modified Geometry of 106Ru Asymmetric Eye Plaques to Improve Dosimetric Calculations in Ophthalmic Brachytherapy. J Pers Med. 2022 Apr 29; 12(5). PMID: 35629144.
  • Bertolet A, Abolfath R, Carlson DJ, Lustig RA, Hill-Kayser C, Alonso-Basanta M, Carabe A. Correlation of LET With MRI Changes in Brain and Potential Implications for Normal Tissue Complication Probability for Patients With Meningioma Treated With Pencil Beam Scanning Proton Therapy. Int J Radiat Oncol Biol Phys. 2022 01 01; 112(1):237-246. PMID: 34425196.

2021

  • Bertolet A, Wehrenberg-Klee E, Bobic M, Grassberger C, Perl J, Paganetti H, Schuemann J. Pre- and post-treatment image-based dosimetry in90Y-microsphere radioembolization using the TOPAS Monte Carlo toolkit. Phys Med Biol. 2021 12 29; 66(24). PMID: 34915451; PMCID: PMC8729171.
  • Baratto-Roldán A, Bertolet A, Baiocco G, Carabe A, Cortés-Giraldo MA. Microdosimetry and Dose-Averaged LET Calculations of Protons in Liquid Water: A Novel Geant4-DNA Application. Frontiers in Physics. 2021; 9(October):726787.
  • Bertolet A, Ramos-Méndez J, Paganetti H, Schuemann J. The relation between microdosimetry and induction of direct damage to DNA by alpha particles. Phys Med Biol. 2021 07 30; 66(15). PMID: 34280910; PMCID: PMC8483580.
  • Miras Del Río H, Ortiz Lora A, Bertolet Reina A, Terrón León JA. A Monte Carlo dose calculation system for ophthalmic brachytherapy based on a realistic eye model. Med Phys. 2021 Aug; 48(8):4542-4559. PMID: 34250607.
  • Bertolet A, Cortés-Giraldo MA, Carabe-Fernandez A. Implementation of the microdosimetric kinetic model using analytical microdosimetry in a treatment planning system for proton therapy. Phys Med. 2021 Jan; 81:69-76. PMID: 33440283.

2020

  • Bertolet A, Wals A, Miras H, Macías J. Organic generation of real-world real-time data for clinical evidence in radiation oncology. Int J Med Inform. 2020 12; 144:104301. PMID: 33091831
  • Bertolet A, Cortés-Giraldo MA, Carabe-Fernandeza A. An Analytical Microdosimetric Model for Radioimmunotherapeutic Alpha Emitters. Radiat Res. 2020 10 02; 194(4):403-410. PMID: 33045091.
  • Carabe A, Karagounis IV, Huynh K, Bertolet A, François N, Kim MM, Maity A, Abel E, Dale R. Radiobiological effectiveness difference of proton arc beams versus conventional proton and photon beams. Phys Med Biol. 2020 08 31; 65(16):165002. PMID: 32413889.
  • Bertolet A, Carabe A. Modelling Dose Effects from Space Irradiations: Combination of High-LET and Low-LET Radiations with a Modified Microdosimetric Kinetic Model. Life (Basel). 2020 Aug 23; 10(9). PMID: 32842519; PMCID: PMC7555955.
  • Bertolet A, Carabe A. Proton monoenergetic arc therapy (PMAT) to enhance LETd within the target. Phys Med Biol. 2020 08 19; 65(16):165006. PMID: 32428896.
  • Bertolet A, Grilj V, Guardiola C, Harken AD, Cortés-Giraldo MA, Baratto-Roldán A, Carabe A. Experimental validation of an analytical microdosimetric model based on Geant4-DNA simulations by using a silicon-based microdosimeter. Radiat Phys Chem. 2020 Nov; 176. PMID: 33100611; PMCID: PMC7583143.
  • Bertolet A, Carabe-Fernandez A. Clinical implications of variable relative biological effectiveness in proton therapy for prostate cancer. Acta Oncol. 2020 Oct; 59(10):1171-1177. PMID: 32427011.
  • Bertolet A, Cortés-Giraldo MA, Carabe-Fernandez A. On the concepts of dose-mean lineal energy, unrestricted and restricted dose-averaged LET in proton therapy. Phys Med Biol. 2020 04 02; 65(7):075011. PMID: 32023557.
  • Bertolet A, Cortés-Giraldo MA, Souris K, Carabe A. A kernel-based algorithm for the spectral fluence of clinical proton beams to calculate dose-averaged LET and other dosimetric quantities of interest. Med Phys. 2020 Jun; 47(6):2495-2505. PMID: 32124463.
  • Carabe-Fernandez A, Bertolet-Reina A, Karagounis I, Huynh K, Dale RG. Is there a role for arcing techniques in proton therapy? Br J Radiol. 2020 Mar 01; 93(1107):20190469. PMID: 31860338; PMCID: PMC7066964.

2019

  • Bertolet A, Cortés-Giraldo MA, Souris K, Cohilis M, Carabe-Fernandez A. Calculation of clinical dose distributions in proton therapy from microdosimetry. Med Phys. 2019 Dec; 46(12):5816-5823. PMID: 31603992.
  • Bertolet A, Baratto-Roldán A, Cortés-Giraldo MA, Carabe-Fernandez A. Segment-averaged LET concept and analytical calculation from microdosimetric quantities in proton radiation therapy. Med Phys. 2019 Sep; 46(9):4204-4214. PMID: 31228264.
  • Bertolet A, Baratto-Roldán A, Barbieri S, Baiocco G, Carabe A, Cortés-Giraldo MA. Dose-averaged LET calculation for proton track segments using microdosimetric Monte Carlo simulations. Med Phys. 2019 Sep; 46(9):4184-4192. PMID: 31169910.

2018

  • Miras H, Jiménez R, Perales Á, Terrón JA, Bertolet A, Ortiz A, Macías J. Monte Carlo verification of radiotherapy treatments with CloudMC. Radiat Oncol. 2018 Jun 27; 13(1):99. PMID: 29945681.

100 Blossom St, Cox 802D & 125 Nashua St,
Boston, MA, 02141

The Bertolet Lab

at the Mass General Hospital

and Harvard Medical School