"Improving delivery efficiency and efficacy in particle therapy: recent progress and future technological developments" - Jacinta Yap (Melbourne)

• Abstract
• Slides
• Details:

  Date: 5th July 2023
  Time: 15:00 
  Location: Room 539, Blackett Lab
            Department of Physics, Imperial College London
            Exhibition Road, London, SW7 2AZ
  Zoom link: https://ukri.zoom.us/j/99604934866
  

Abstract

Particle therapy (PT) is a highly precise and advanced modality of radiotherapy leveraging the physical and dosimetric advantages of hadrons for cancer treatment. The availability of PT is rapidly growing worldwide but is still limited by affordability and technological challenges. As recent innovations continue to reduce the costs and size of facilities and accelerators, further improvements are still necessary to fully capitalise on the clinical benefits of PT and to increase accessibility. Next generation beam delivery systems (BDS) are needed to surpass current capabilities: faster delivery can lead to higher quality treatments, reduced costs, and an enhanced patient experience. Recent progress and ongoing development with several innovations are presented, including an overview of the Technology for Ultra Beam Operation (TURBO) project at the University of Melbourne, Australia. The TURBO system explores the feasibility of a BDS – with a large energy acceptance, capable of minimising the main bottleneck associated with changing energy during beam delivery – enabling rapid PT treatment. Other approaches also attempt to address and compensate for technical limitations with modern delivery methods: further advancement is necessary to support the possibility for emerging techniques such as Arc, FLASH and multi-ion therapies. Future plans and directions of the field are also discussed, as technological developments work toward improving PT treatment efficiency and efficacy.