Research Projects

Modeling of proton RBE variations in patients

Duration: 2023 – 2027

In radio-oncology, as in many other fields of medicine, predictive algorithms are becoming established for estimating cancer cure rates or risks of complications, and will be increasingly ubiquitous in the years to come. A key aspect of accurately predicting treatment outcome is understanding the biological effects that radiation has on cancer cells and normal tissues that, despite our best efforts, still receive the dose due to their proximity to the treatment site. Predicting treatment efficacy against the likelihood of complication is key to optimal patient care, and modelling biological response to therapy underpins this goal. As proton therapy becomes an accessible option for patients in hospital settings, the progressive availability of clinical follow-up data makes the engineering of predictive models a key research field in the coming years. With this proposal, we are moving along these lines, focusing on specific aspects of validation and refinement of predictive technologies applied to proton therapy, while improving our knowledge of RBE in patients.

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Employees: Bastien Golomer

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New concept for adaptive real time tumour tracking

Duration: 01.10.2019 – 30.09.2023

In radiotherapy, the most efficient way to treat a tumour that moves as a result of patient breathing is tracking its position with the treatment beam. This so-called tumour tracking technique is implemented in photon therapy LINACS since a number of years to reduce the safety margins and make best use of irradiation time. The translation of this approach to particle therapy is however challenging and presents a number of very specific issues dictated by the finite range of the treatment beam and its dependence on the density of tissues crossed. The success of tumour tracking with particles is strictly related with the capability of rapid, on the fly, adaptation of the treatment field settings to follow the patient breathing to attempt to avoid overshooting into healthy tissues or severe dose corruptions. To achieve this, we will explore the momentum acceptance and global achromaticity of a Gantry beam line, in order to perform ultra fast and continuous energy regulation with a standard upstream degrader.

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Employees: Anna Chiara Giovannelli, PhD thesis, Giulia Peteani, intern

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Cancer Radiomics Targeted by Pencil Beam Scanning Proton Therapy for Deformable Tumours

Duration: 01.01.2019 – 31.12.2023

Tumours located in thoracic and abdominal sites present a unique set of challenges for radiotherapy because of their anatomical complexity, biological heterogeneity and non-stationary motion dynamic. Tumour hypoxia has been reportedly correlated with poor prognostic outcome owing to its contribution to radio-resistance. The aim of this project is to improve the quality of radiation therapy for cancer patients by precisely delivering the dose to radio-resistant tumour locations (biologic heterogeneity) by personalized proton therapy that tackles both tumour geometry and motion of a given patient. Medical-related technology applied to advanced delivery of proton pencil beam scanning will consequentially improve the precision of the therapy in the framework of precision- or personalized-medicine. The aim is therefore to implement a platform for decision support that presents the different treatment options with the expected therapeutic benefit to the physician taking into account the biological heterogeneity of tumours together with the potential effects of motion.

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Employees: Andreas Köthe, PhD thesis

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