This course will include four sub-sections including: 1) Fundamentals of imaging in
Radiotherapy; 2) Advanced radiotherapy techniques; 3) Advanced imaging technique in IGRT and ART; and 4) Innovation in external beam radiotherapy.
503.1 Fundamentals of imaging in Radiotherapy – This course discusses the fundamentals, production, benefits, and limitations of imaging modalities currently in use in radiation oncology (X-Ray, CT, Ultrasound), as well as those (MRI/MRSI, MRI and spectrometry and hyperpolarized atoms, PET/SPECT, single photon counting) that will play an increasingly important role in tumor identification/ delineation, radiation treatment planning and patient follow-up.
503.2 Advanced radiotherapy techniques – This course covers the description of highly sophisticated and advanced techniques used daily in modern radiation oncology for selected patient’s presentations, often for a small number and delivered in highly specialized/academic centers. The goal of those innovations is both to improve radiotherapy precision, corresponding to the dose distribution conformality around the target, and accuracy, or adequacy between the dose distribution and target geographical accuracy. Those techniques include SRS (stereotactic radiosurgery), SRT (stereotactic radiotherapy), ZAP and g-knife, SBRT (stereotactic body radiotherapy), IGRT (image guided radiotherapy) and SGRT (surface guided radiotherapy).
503.3 Advanced imaging technique in IGRT and ART – There has been a large range of innovation in image guided radiotherapy to enable more precise registration (shifts of the patient on the treatment table to ensure accuracy) and to enable ART (adaptive radiotherapy). Many of those modalities are still at the research stage. They include the MR-linac, various CT-linacs with 3D portal images that are very close to CT-scanner quality and resolution, and PET-Linacs. The development of each platform led to engineering choices that could prevent their application to all patients. The pros and cons of those technologies will be thoroughly reviewed.
503.4 Innovation in external beam radiotherapy – This course will review innovative research in radiation oncology with promising or failing clinical applications. The concept of the therapy, the clinical application status worldwide and the limitation to adoption will be explained. The purpose of this lecture is to learn from success and failures, and to help students to select sound projects for their academic carrier. At a higher altitude the course will help clarifying the difference between the academic goal, where grants and publications count most, and the health care needs, where treating efficiently and resourcefully patients is essential. The technique which will be reviewed include boron neutron capture therapy, hyperthermia, flash therapy, and gold nanoparticle radiosensitization.