Coming Soon!
The Grace Kim Memorial Grand Challenge: Advancing Total Body, Marrow, and Lymphoid Irradiation
Benchmarking methods, sharing solutions, and advancing patient care through collaborative competition.
Background: Total body, marrow, and lymphoid irradiation represent some of the most complex and technically demanding areas in modern radiation therapy. Total body irradiation, in particular, plays a crucial role in the management of certain leukemias and lymphomas, serving as part of the conditioning regimen before stem cell or bone marrow transplantation. Achieving optimal dose coverage while sparing critical organs is essential for improving outcomes and minimizing toxicity in these vulnerable patients. However, treatment planning for these indications remains a niche, often under-explored domain, presenting significant challenges even for experienced practitioners. Recent advances in imaging, planning algorithms, and clinical protocols underscore the need for innovative approaches that can drive measurable improvements in patient care.
Call for Participation: We invite the community to take part in this Challenge on total body, marrow, and lymphoid irradiation treatment planning, organized by the Working Group on Grand Challenges and Task Group No. 379 and honoring the pioneering spirit of Grace Gwe-Ya Kim, PhD. This challenge aims to bring together leaders and innovators from across the radiation oncology community. It is designed to highlight the motivation, scope, and unique hurdles of this demanding clinical task, while fostering the development of new methods that can advance clinical practice.
Participants are encouraged to submit approaches spanning a wide range of strategies—from creative contouring solutions to advanced optimization methods—demonstrating the potential to raise standards in total body irradiation. Submissions will be assessed, and the winning and runner-up teams will be invited to present their work in a dedicated conference session at the 2026 AAPM Annual Meeting. To support participation, registration for one member of each of these two teams will be covered.
Engaging in this challenge offers a unique opportunity to benchmark methods, exchange ideas with peers, and contribute to a community-wide effort to advance treatment planning. By participating, teams will help stimulate dialogue, foster collaboration, and accelerate progress in a field where methodological advances can directly benefit patient outcomes.
Registration opens December 1, 2025 - REGISTRATION LINK COMING SOON. Check back often for more details!
Previous Challenges
- Actinium-225 quantification and SPECT/CT reconstruction (ACTI-QUANT) Grand Challenge
- The Generalizable Dose Prediction for Heterogenous Multi-Cohort and Multi-Site Radiotherapy Planning (GDP-HMM) Grand Challenge
- Quantitative Intravoxel Incoherent Motion (IVIM) Diffusion MRI Reconstruction (IVIM-dMRI Recon)
- CT Metal Artifact Reduction (CT-MAR)
- Deep Generative Modeling for Learning Medical Image Statistics (DGM-Image Challenge)
- Understanding Time-Activity Curve and Time Integrated Activity Variations in Radiopharmaceutical Therapy Challenge (TACTIC)
- Deep Learning for Inverse Problems: Spectral Computed Tomography Image Reconstruction (DL-spectral CT)
- Standardizing Imaging and Reconstruction Protocols for Quantitative SPECT/CT Post Yttrium-90 Microspheres Delivery (SIRPRISE) Challenge
- Truth-Based CT (TrueCT) Reconstruction Challenge
- Digital Breast Tomosynthesis Lesion Detection Challenge: Phase 2 (DBTex2)
- Deep Learning for Inverse Problems: Sparse-View Computed Tomography image Reconstruction Challenge (DL-Sparse-View CT)
- Digital Breast Tomosynthesis Lesion Detection Challenge (DBTex)
- The MArkerless Lung Target Tracking CHallenge (MATCH)
- The Open Knowledge-Based Planning Challenge (OpenKBP)
- RT-MAC Challenge
- Computed Tomography Ventilation Imaging Evaluation 2019 (CTVIE19)
Announcements, Publications and Links of Interest
- DL-Sparse-View Challenge data and information
- DL-Spectral Challenge data and information
- CT-MAR Challenge Winners Announced
- DGM-Image Challenge Results
- TACTIC Challenge Results
- Digital Breast Tomosynthesis Lesion Detection (DBTex) Challenge Report Published
- DBTex Grand Challenge Submitted Detection Algorithms and Baseline Detection Methods
- Validation and Test Set Labels + Bounding Boxes
- NOTICE: The labels and lesion bounding boxes for the BCS-DBT dataset's validation and test sets were recently released, at https://www.cancerimagingarchive.net/collection/breast-cancer-screening-dbt/ under "Data Access".
- DL-spectral CT Winners Announced
- SIRPRISE Challenge Results
- TrueCT Challenge Winners
- BreastPathQ Challenge Images
- Low Dose CT Challenge Images and Information Available
- DL-Sparse-View CT Winners Announced
- BreastPathQ Challenge on Diagnostic World News
Questions? Contact: Emily Townley