Robert Hobbs, Ph.D.

Current Projects:

• Clinical Dosimetry and Modeling. (with Dr. Senthamizhchelvan Srinivasan) WB planar, SPECT/CT, or PET/CT images are acquired at different time points following diagnostic administration of radioactivity or radiolabeled substances of patients. The images are used to estimate absorbed dose to tumor and normal organs. Most analyses use 3D-RD, an in-house software package under continuous development, which incorporates radiobiologic modeling. Projects include:
  • high dose 153Sm-EDTMP tumor dosimetry for treatment of metastatic osteosarcoma
  • 124I/131I treatment planning for 131I treatment of thyroid carcinomas
  • salivary gland toxicity study in 131I treatment of thyroid cancer (collaboration with University of Duisburg-Essen)
  • renal toxicity and tumor dosimetry in radiopeptide therapy for lymphoma (collaboration with University of Lausanne)
  • modeling for BETR therapy for EBV-associated cancers
  • dose-response studies and modeling for lymphoma and thyroid cancer

• Murine Metastatic Breast Cancer Model (with Dr. Hong Song and Caroline Esaias). Dr. Hobbs’ participation in this field is primarily concerned with developing an accurate estimation of the effects of chemotherapy and metastatic disease on bone marrow toxicity levels from different radiotherapies for breast cancer. Bone Marrow toxicity is often the limiting factor in radioimmunotherapy and toxicity studies have previously only concerned themselves with healthy or primary tumor murine models. This research includes a wide range of techniques from microSPECT and WB imaging to bio-distribution and histopathology using a variety of radioactive sources such as alpha and beta emitting radioisotopes and external beam radiation.