MED
In the literature: open
Vascular versus immune origin of the spatial effect
In plain words
Two explanations compete: the blood vessels in the gaps keep tissue alive, or the immune system is activated by the striped pattern. Deciding between them is open.
Precise statement
Determine the relative contribution of microvascular preservation and of immune activation to the differential response of spatially fractionated fields, by measuring the effect in immunodeficient versus immunocompetent models and with and without vascular protection, at fixed peak and valley dose. An answer assigns the dominant channel per tissue and tumour type.
What would settle it
Matched experiments in immunodeficient and immunocompetent hosts with vascular imaging, at identical dose geometry.
Related problems
- Special case of Why narrow beams spare tissue that wide beams destroy