[ad_1] Project Title: Methods development and image analyses for upright radiotherapy of the thorax Primary Supervisor: Professor G
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Project Title:
Methods development and image analyses for upright radiotherapy of the thorax
Primary Supervisor: Professor Gary Royle
Secondary Supervisor: Dr Tracy Underwood (Leo Cancer Care), Dr David Cobben (Clatterbridge Cancer Centre)
A 4-year funded PhD studentship is available in the UCL Department of Medical Physics and Biomedical Engineering. Funding will be at least the UCL minimum. Stipend details can be found here. The successful candidate will be enrolled onto the City of London CRUK RadNet doctoral training scheme, benefitting from being part of a cohort of PhD students, as well as activities and events organised by the network.
This is a project in collaboration with Leo Cancer Care: a young, innovative company who are developing equipment to treatment radiotherapy patients upright rather than lying down. It also comes with opportunities to work with other industrial partners and clinical cancer centres.
Project Background
Currently, the majority of radiotherapy patients are treated lying on their backs. For conventional X-ray radiotherapy, a complex ‘gantry’ weighing approximately six tonnes is rotated around them. As it rotates, the gantry delivers radiation beams from different angles. For proton therapy, gantries can be 3 stories high and weigh approximately 200 tonnes. In recent years, interest has grown in ‘upright’ or ‘gantry-less’ radiotherapy, where a patient is treated upright on a robotic chair, which rotates through a fixed treatment beam. Upright radiotherapy has the potential to: (1) deliver substantial cost savings by simplifying the equipment, room design and workflow (whether using X-ray, proton, or carbon treatment beams); (2) make treatments more comfortable for patients, physically and psychologically; (3) lower the late toxicity for subsets of patients due to the differing anatomy and physiology upright, compared to supine.
This project focuses on upright radiotherapy of the thorax. Initially, radiotherapy of the breast will be prioritised as 1/7 women in the UK will be diagnosed with breast cancer during their lifetime, and it is the most common cancer globally. Much of the research will also be applicable to radiotherapy of the lung or oesophagus, which will be considered in parallel. The successful student will analyse data to consider how upright body positioning is likely to compare to the current standard care, and whether it might lead to reduced side-effects / improved tumour control for certain subsets of patients.
Research aims
- To perform anatomical analyses of MRI scans of volunteers who have been imaged both upright and supine. Close collaboration with clinical colleagues will enable us to explore the likely impact of these anatomical changes on radiotherapy treatments. This aspect of the project will be highly computational.
- To research different methods of respiratory motion management (e.g. deep inspiration breath hold spirometry) and their application to upright radiotherapy of the thorax
- To analyse surface-scan data, researching the reproducibility and stability of different upright body positions and immobilisation methods.
Person specification & requirements
We are looking for candidates with at least an upper second-class bachelor’s degree related to physics, medical physics, oncology, therapeutic radiography or computer science. As the research will be mainly computational, candidates should have the desire to use and develop their programming skills.
The ideal candidate might have:
- Programming experience, particularly in image analysis
- An interest in and awareness of radiation therapy / medical physics / medical imaging
- Relevant work experience
- Relevant publications / good written skills
Details on how to apply for this studentship can be found here
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