NCINM Release History

Chronological technical record of NCINM releases, calculation updates, maintenance changes, and compatibility notes.

NCINM Release History

Scientific and maintenance update record for the National Cancer Institute dosimetry system for Nuclear Medicine.

Latest release: October 2, 2026 Latest scientific update: September 30, 2026 Record begins: 2019

2026

October 2, 2026 — Maintenance Update

Desktop release: 4.20261002 (macOS and Windows).

  • Corrected the ICRP mesh target-organ mass display to match the targets used by the active dose coefficients, including stem-cell and basal-cell layers.
  • This mass-display correction does not change organ doses, S values or Monte Carlo uncertainty calculations.

This release also includes the scientific update:

  • Corrected remainder-activity allocation by removing double-counted composite/component source regions and renormalising weights after all exclusions. ICRP mesh oesophageal remainder activity now uses wall coefficients.

September 30, 2026 — Scientific Update

GUI

  • Added male and female ICRP mesh phantoms for newborns and children (ICRP Publication 156) and adults (ICRP Publication 145), with photon and electron specific absorbed fractions calculated anew using Geant4 Monte Carlo.
  • Added mesh-based S values for 1,070 radionuclides and Monte Carlo uncertainties for organ and effective doses. Explicit target layers improve anatomical accuracy in electron dose calculations for alimentary stem cells, oral mucosa, and oesophageal and urinary-bladder basal cells.
  • Updated to 133 reviewed biokinetic models. Newborn data, previously extrapolated from infant data, are now marked unavailable to clarify data limitations. Newborn calculations with user-entered source data remain available.
  • Extended Batch Manager to support the ICRP mesh library.

API

The NCINM4 API was deployed to the hosted service on October 1, 2026.

  • Added phantom_library = 4 for ICRP mesh radiopharmaceutical dose calculations while retaining 1 for NCI and 2 for ICRP voxel phantoms.
  • Updated the API to use the same 133-model radiopharmaceutical library as the GUI.
  • Added an explicit error for newborn radiopharmaceutical requests because predefined newborn biokinetic data are not available.
  • The API returns organ absorbed dose and effective dose. Mesh Monte Carlo uncertainty is currently available in the GUI only.

September 9, 2026 — Maintenance Update

Dose calculation corrections

  • Corrected the Adult Male gonadal residence time for In-111-labelled human immunoglobulin from 75 h to the ICRP Publication 128 value of 0.075 h, preventing substantial overestimation of gonadal and effective dose.
  • Corrected ICRP Publication 103 remainder-tissue weights so the 13 remainder tissues receive the full combined weight of 0.12 and the complete tissue-weighting factors sum to 1.0.
  • Corrected remainder-source volume weighting for overlapping blood and kidney source definitions, and corrected the API to use ICRP source-organ volumes when the ICRP phantom library is selected.
  • Prevented negative interpolation artifacts in S values from propagating to calculations or exports.
  • Corrected synchronization between edited Remainder cumulated activity and residence time so subsequent calculations use the edited value consistently.

Calculation safeguards

  • Prevented concurrent API requests from mixing shared calculation state.
  • Made S-value loading failures return an explicit API error instead of continuing with unavailable calculation data.

August 22, 2026 — Maintenance Update

  • Added dot- and comma-decimal input support to the GUI, Batch Manager, and API.
  • Added comma- and semicolon-delimited batch CSV import while keeping exported CSV files comma-delimited with dot decimals.
  • Clarified source and target table headers, including maternal source-region and fetal target-region labels on the Fetus tab.

August 12, 2026 — Maintenance Update

macOS security and distribution

  • Signed both the macOS application and distribution disk image (DMG) with the National Cancer Institute's Apple-issued Developer ID Application certificate.
  • Enabled the Hardened Runtime, notarized the signed DMG through Apple's notarization service, and stapled the notarization ticket to the DMG.
  • Both the DMG and application can be verified by macOS Gatekeeper and no longer trigger the usual unidentified-developer blocking message when the distributed files are unmodified.

May 10, 2026 — Scientific Update

GUI

  • Expanded the radionuclide S-value library to 1,070 radionuclides based on photon and electron emissions from ICRP Publication 107.
  • Added a fetus phantom library with gestational ages of 8, 10, 15, 20, 25, 30, 35, and 38 weeks.
  • Added mother-to-fetus SAF-based S values for maternal source regions and fetal target organs.
  • Added fetal target-organ masses and maternal source-region volumes, including placenta and amniotic-fluid source regions.
  • Updated high-quality phantom display views, including fetus phantom views for the new gestational ages.
  • Updated the radionuclide menu and standardized radiopharmaceutical-name loading.
  • Improved performance through backend optimization.
  • Updated source and target listboxes with header rows, adjusted column widths, and automatic shading for source rows with non-zero residence time.
  • Kept the Radiopharmaceutical tab blank for fetus phantom calculations because pregnancy-specific radiopharmaceutical biokinetic models are not currently defined. Fetus calculations use the Radionuclide tab with user-entered maternal source-region data.

Batch Manager

  • Added a Batch Manager for CSV-based dose calculations from the NCINM3 GUI.
  • Added radiopharmaceutical fuzzy matching for clinical-style names and common radionuclide notation variants such as F-18, 18F, Tc-99m, and 99mTc.
  • Added the example batch input file ncinmBatchInput.csv.
  • Batch calculations use the same NCI and ICRP radiopharmaceutical workflow as the API.
  • Automatically matches a radiopharmaceutical name read from batch CSV to the closest library entry using fuzzy matching.
  • Added nearest-age phantom matching.
  • Batch output is saved as CSV and includes resolved input values, radiopharmaceutical match information, and organ-dose columns.
  • Updated dose-output column names to use the Dose prefix, such as Dose Adipose.

API

  • Added radiopharmaceutical fuzzy matching for clinical-style names and common radionuclide notation variants.
  • Updated API input to named JSON fields with common aliases for phantom library, sex, age, radiopharmaceutical, and administered activity.
  • Expanded API output with input, phantom_age_match, radiopharmaceutical_match, and dose_mGy JSON sections.
  • Added arbitrary patient-age matching to the nearest available NCINM phantom age group.
  • Automatically matches a radiopharmaceutical name received in JSON input to the closest library entry.
  • Documented support for the NCI and ICRP radiopharmaceutical workflow. Fetus calculations are handled in the GUI through the Radionuclide tab with user-entered maternal source-region data.
  • Added local API test file _ncinm3api_test.http.

2024

December 15, 2024 — Scientific Update

  • Added in-application links to the user manual and technical support forum (now NCI Dose Tools Discussions).
  • Corrected radionuclide selection when switching radiopharmaceuticals.

January 24, 2024 — Scientific Update

  • Added biokinetic models developed for pediatric thyroid cancer patients (Kwon et al., Journal of Radiological Protection, 2023).
  • Added biokinetic models developed for adult thyroid cancer patients (Kwon et al., Journal of Radiological Protection, in press at the time of release).
  • Removed biokinetic models derived from older ICRP Publications 53, 80, and 106 when updated data from ICRP Publication 128 were available.

2022

December 15, 2022 — Scientific Update

  • Corrected mismatches between radionuclides and radiopharmaceuticals.
  • Sorted radiopharmaceutical names alphabetically.
  • Revised the effective-dose calculation algorithm.

December 14, 2022 — Scientific Update

  • Published NCINM 2.0: Villoing et al., “Organ dose calculator for diagnostic nuclear medicine patients based on the ICRP reference voxel phantoms and biokinetic models,” Biomedical Physics & Engineering Express, 9:015004 (2023).
  • Included blood mass in target-organ mass for ICRP pediatric and adult phantoms when blood is the source region, consistent with ICRP Publication 133.
  • Extended biokinetic data to 230 radiopharmaceuticals from ICRP Publications 53, 80, 106, and 128.

November 9, 2022 — Scientific Update

  • Fixed issues related to radionuclide and radiopharmaceutical mismatches.
  • Enabled copy and paste by mouse dragging.

September 19, 2022 — Scientific Update

  • Updated adult gastrointestinal-tract self- and cross-fire SAFs using ICRP Publication 133.
  • Fixed an issue that prevented S-value export for ICRP phantoms.

May 12, 2022 — Scientific Update

  • Added biokinetic data for four additional radiopharmaceuticals.
  • Corrected ovary-data issues in the ICRP 15-year-old female phantom.

April 20, 2022 — Scientific Update

  • Revised NCI phantom-based active marrow and endosteum SAFs and S values using the latest dose-response functions adopted by ICRP Committee 2.

March 29, 2022 — Scientific Update

  • Corrected logical errors in skeletal dose calculations.
  • Removed effective-dose calculations based on ICRP Publication 60 tissue-weighting factors.
  • Added effective-dose calculations using ICRP Publication 103 tissue-weighting factors to target-organ dose values automatically copied to the clipboard.
  • Corrected blood-inclusive target-organ mass values.
  • Extended biokinetic data to 101 radiopharmaceuticals from ICRP Publications 53, 80, and 106.

2021

November 29, 2021 — Maintenance Update

  • Implemented frontal images of ICRP voxel phantoms, replacing frontal images of NCI hybrid phantoms.

November 13, 2021 — Scientific Update

  • Corrected the zero-adipose-mass issue for the ICRP newborn female phantom.
  • Fixed errors in the Windows installation file.
  • Revised the user interface to be more compact.

October 19, 2021 — Scientific Update

  • Added biokinetic data for 62 radiopharmaceuticals.
  • Added User Manual and User Forum items under the Help menu (the forum is now NCI Dose Tools Discussions).

May 15, 2021 — Scientific Update

  • Added blood mass to target-organ mass in ICRP pediatric reference phantoms, consistent with adult ICRP phantoms in ICRP Publication 133.

May 13, 2021 — Scientific Update

  • Added biokinetic models for 12 radiopharmaceuticals extracted from multiple ICRP publications.
  • Added S values from the 12 ICRP reference pediatric and adult phantoms.

2020

July 20, 2020

  • Published NCINM 1.0: Villoing et al., “NCINM: organ dose calculator for patients undergoing nuclear medicine procedures,” Biomedical Physics & Engineering Express, 6:055010 (2020).

March 12, 2020 — Scientific Update

  • Completed comprehensive benchmarking against OLINDA/EXM 1.0 and IDAC 2.1.

2019

August 22, 2019 — Scientific Update

  • Created NCINM 1.0 based on the 12 NCI reference phantoms.
  • Initiated alpha testing.