Experience the Elekta Differ - Institute of Physics and Engineering in ...

2011 AAPM–IPEM MEDICAL PHYSICS
TRAVEL GRANT REPORT
JUN DENG Yale New Haven Hospital, New Haven, CT, USA
I
n April 2012 I visited the UK
after receiving an
AAPM–IPEM Medical
Physics Travel Grant. Here I
outline my experiences at
each of the centres that I went
to and the people that I met.
16TH APRIL: CASTLE
HILL HOSPITAL
After a long train ride from London to
Hull, I finally arrived at the Castle
Hill Hospital where Dr Andy Beavis,
Head of the Radiation Physics
Department, was the host for my first
stop during this trip to the UK. My
visit started with a tour of the
department led by Dr Beavis. The
whole oncology centre is very new
with eco- and patient-friendly designs
everywhere, which to me makes it
seem rather more like a hotel than a
cancer centre for radiotherapy. Then I
gave a lecture talking about the
kVCBCT imaging doses and the
associated cancer risks, after which
we had a round-table meeting for
physics staff so that everyone could
get involved in a more interactive
discussion. The primary concerns
were about the imaging doses and
why CT manufacturers did a better
job than the linac manufacturers for
CBCT in terms of imaging dose
reduction, protocol optimisation and
patient safety. I also learnt that a
virtual CT reconstructor has been
developed by this group so that
virtual CT scans can be simulated to
study the correlation between the
imaging doses and the image quality
without actually performing a scan
on a patient. I was very interested in
this project and indicated that our
group was developing a similar tool
dedicated to CBCT virtual simulation
and reconstruction. Finally, I was
lucky enough to experience a state-ofthe-art
technology named VERT
developed and co-founded by Dr
Beavis. VERT (virtual environment
for radiotherapy and training) is a
linac simulator set in a 3D virtual
environment, which can help users
train with full access to the linac
functionality without interfering with
the clinical workflow. We actually
took a picture as shown in figure 1
with VERT displayed in the
background.
FIGURE 1.
Dr Andy Beavis
and Jun at
Castle Hill
Hospital.
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TRAVEL AWARD | SCOPE
17TH APRIL: CLATTERBRIDGE
CENTRE FOR ONCOLOGY
The following day I visited the
Clatterbridge Centre for Oncology
where Dr Alan Nahum was my
host. We actually started our
conversion with our fond memories
of the past. I was fascinated by all
sorts of legendary stories told by
Alan about our common friends.
Alan’s postdoc Dr Julien Uzan gave
me a brief introduction to their latest
research tool called Biosuite, aiming
to facilitate biologically based
treatment planning and
optimisation. The software analysed
the DVH data exported from
conventional treatment planning
systems and computed TCP and
NTCP based on published Marsden
and LKB models. In addition, the
software was able to optimise the
plan with a fixed NTCP value, the
so-called isotoxic planning scheme,
and generate a series of plans with
different TCP values corresponding
to different fractionations. Later on,
I gave a lecture on kVCBCT and was
engaged in a very interactive
discussion with dozens of physicists
and research staff. I enjoyed some
tough questions raised by Alan and
Dr Geoff Lawrence. Finally, I was
kindly given a tour of the only
proton radiotherapy facility in the
UK, Douglas Cyclotron (figure 2), by
Dr Andrzej Kacperek. It produced a
single energy of 62 MeV proton
beams dedicated to radiotherapy of
eye tumours due to its limited
treatment depth in tissue of 3 cm.
The highly acclaimed
professionalism and rigorous efforts
to quality control the clinical
practices at every step made it a
highly successful facility, which
treated one-third of eye patients in
the UK and dozens of patients
across the world. It was a busy day
for me. In fact, I was so involved
with the intensive discussions that I
forgot my room number when I got
back to my hotel. Luckily I did not
forget which hotel I was staying in!
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SCOPE | SEPTEMBER 2012 | 19