The objective of PASSOS (Personalised assessment of late health risks after exposure to ionising radiation and guidance for radiation applications in medicine) is the assessment of the risk of cancer and cardiovascular diseases after medical radiation exposure, considering individual factors. Treatment techniques of breast cancer therapy and cardiac diagnostic procedures are investigated. For both cases, PASSOS concentrates on diseases with good prognosis, i.e. with expected survival times of many years. Therefore the assessment of late health risks after radiation exposure is of high relevance from an individual, societal and socio-economic viewpoint.

Organ dose distributions are investigated for different procedures of breast cancer treatment and cardiac diagnostics, taking into account individual properties of the patients. Risk models for all types of cancer as well as for cardiovascular diseases are developed including individual risk factors. A particular challenge is the large range of exposures from low (10 mGy) to therapeutic doses (> 4 Gy).

Two software packages for the assessment of late health risks will be developed: one for given organ dose distributions, and one for different radiation applications for breast cancer and cardiac diseases. The aim is to provide guidance to the attending doctor in the personalized choice of different therapeutic and diagnostic procedures.

Number of institutional partners: 9
Coordination: Helmholtz Zentrum München