Evaluating the internal radiation dosimetry is an essential part of the development of new radiopharmaceuticals. Conventionally, the evaluation is carried out by carrying out model-based calculations on mathematical phantoms representing the Western Reference Man1, which is an anatomical and physiological description of the typical Caucasian man, developed by the International Commission on Radiological Protection (ICRP) (ICRP 2003).
Anatomical descriptions of non-Western populations exist (see section 3.1), and there are significant anatomical differences between the ICRP Western Reference Man and these non-Western Reference Men. Pure physics arguments predict differing inter-racial dosimetry profiles, for example the literature indicates that absorbed fractions can vary with 0.5%-1.0% per kilogram change in body weight (Stabin 2008a).