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Wolfgang A. Tome, Ph.D.
- Professor, Department of Radiation Oncology
- Professor, The Saul R. Korey Department of Neurology
- Director of Medical Physics, Institute for Onco-Physics at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine
Area of research
- Mitigation of radiation injury; MR Guided Therapy; Decision Support Systems for Adaptive Radiation Therapy; Response monitoring using functional imaging; Real time dosimetry systems for particle therapy.
Phone
Location
- Albert Einstein College of Medicine Jack and Pearl Resnick Campus 1300 Morris Park Avenue Block 106 Bronx, NY 10461
Research Profiles
Professional Interests
Mitigating Radiation Injury to Normal Tissue
Mitigating radiation injury to normal brain tissue is a major focus of our research. One example is hippocampal-avoidance whole-brain radiotherapy (HA-WBRT). Although whole-brain radiotherapy (WBRT), combined with stereotactic radiosurgery, can provide effective palliation for many inoperable cases, its neurocognitive adverse effects may outweigh its benefits. HA-WBRT seeks to preserve neurocognitive function and quality of life, requiring careful optimization of the risk-benefit balance for these outcomes. In patients receiving focal fractionated stereotactic radiotherapy for benign and low-grade brain tumors, we identified a hippocampal dose threshold of 7.3 Gy in 2-Gy fraction equivalents to 40% of the hippocampus that was associated with subsequent impairment in delayed recall. Patients whose dose exceeded this threshold were 19 times more likely to show impaired list learning than those whose dose remained below it. We have also demonstrated that current intensity-modulated radiotherapy techniques can meet this constraint. Sparing the hippocampus during WBRT may therefore provide durable palliation while reducing neurocognitive side effects in the memory domain. Using animal models, we aim to further investigate the relationship between hippocampal irradiation and neurocognitive impairment.
Advanced Radiation Technologies and Image-Guided Therapy
My group develops technologies that make radiation delivery more precise, adaptive, and personalized. Key research areas include:
- Real-Time X-Ray Motion Tracking: Evaluation of a realtime X-ray based motion management techniques for stereotactic treatments of prostate, locally advanced pancreatic, and lung cancers. Combining internal tumor tracking with external respiratory signals may reduce treatment margins and better spare healthy organs.
- Adaptive Radiotherapy Monitoring and Decision Support: Development of Lead-Time Simple Exponential Smoothing models for adaptive monitoring of radiotherapy to monitor and account for changes in anatomy and dose delivery during the treatment delivery course.
- MR-Guided Radiotherapy: Use of magnetic resonance imaging to monitor anatomy and treatment-related changes throughout radiotherapy.
- Stereotactic Radiosurgery (SRS): Refining highly precise, high-dose focal treatments for malignant and benign tumors of the central nervous system.
Biologically Guided Radiotherapy and Functional Imaging
Beyond conventional anatomical imaging, my group uses functional imaging to assess biological responses in tumors and normal tissues. This work supports dose painting, in which biological characteristics guide customized radiation doses across different tumor regions.
Cancer Theragnostic and Novel Radiation Modalities
- Temporally Modulated Pulsed Radiation Therapy (TMPRT): Evaluating pulsed irradiation for primary and recurrent tumors, including central nervous system tumors, breast cancer, head and neck cancers, gastrointestinal and anorectal cancers, thoracic malignancies, cervical cancer, and bone sarcomas.
- Tumor-Specific Contrast Agents: Evaluating long-lived, tumor-specific gadolinium-based agents for diagnostic imaging and therapeutic targeting using Geant4-based TOPAS Monte Carlo simulations.
- Immunoadjuvant and Targeted Therapy: Investigating how specialized radiation delivery can work with immunotherapy to enhance antitumor immune responses.