New European project to fight cancer using radiopharmaceutical therapy
The Institute of Corpuscular Physics (IFIC, CSIC-UV) is leading a new initiative to combat cancer through medical physics. This is the AIDER project, coordinated by researcher Gabriela Llosá, which aims to develop a medical imaging tool for targeted therapy with radioactive atoms, or radionuclides. Four European academic groups, one company, two hospitals and a patients’ association form the consortium that will collaborate on this project over the next four years.
24 de september de 2025
AIDER (advanced imaging detector for targeted radionuclide therapy) is a European collaborative project funded by the Horizon Europe programme and coordinated by the Institute of Corpuscular Physics (IFIC), a joint centre of the University of Valencia (UV) and the Spanish National Research Council (CSIC). The project is directed by CSIC researcher Gabriela Llosá, who also coordinates the IRIS medical physics group at IFIC.
Targeted radionuclide therapy (TRT), the focus of the project, uses radiopharmaceuticals to deliver radiation selectively to cancer cells in specific target organs. Radionuclides – radioactive atoms – emit radiation as they decay, destroying cancer cells. Precise quantification of the radiation dose to lesions and at-risk organs is crucial for improving patient safety and reducing side effects.
The AIDER project will build an imaging system based on technology initially developed by IFIC’s IRIS group, enhancing its performance by integrating state-of-the-art detectors and electronics. It will improve both image quality and treatment dosimetry. The system, which will be tested in the consortium’s hospitals, will represent a major step forward in bringing this technique into clinical practice and will strengthen this line of research at an international level.
The consortium brings together experts from Claude Bernard University in Lyon and its affiliated entities CNRS and INSA Lyon; the Centre Léon Bérard Hospital in Lyon, and the company DAMAVAN Imaging, from France; the Polytechnic University of Milan (Italy); the Institute of Medical Engineering at the University of Lübeck (Germany); and La Fe University and Polytechnic Hospital in Valencia, along with the Parents’ Association of Children with Cancer in the Valencian Community.