LhARA pre-CDR Steering Group meeting #4

28 February 2020 10:00 GMT

Notes:

Present: T.Greenshaw, K.Kirkby, A.Kurup, K.Long,

1. Notes of last meeting and actions arising:
   • KK/JP: Consult regarding specification of the end stations.
     • Done/ongoing: J.Parsons and KK have begun to discuss and will meet again next week. KK reported progress in the development of the experimental facility at the Christie. Permissions are being obtained for FLASH irradiation in the experimental room. Hypoxia cabinet and robotic arm are being installed and will be made available on the Easter timescale.
   • KL: Initiate preparation of a meeting with interested parties in the UK and the IBC spokespeople.
     • Done. The spokespeople are ready to join a meeting with us. We need to decide when we would like the meeting to be and then negotiate the date with them. Proposed date range noted at item 4 below.
   • KL: Set up series of meetings with leads at partner organisations to discuss preparation of R&D programme.
     • Ongoing. Discussions with some partners have begun (CLF, ISIS, PPD, Liverpool, Leo Cancer Care). Other discussions need to be initiated. The process needs to close as we move to the generation of proposals following the publication of the pre-CDR.

2. Status of development of pre-CDR: AK
   See slides. Points noted:
   • KK: There is benefit in the ability to spot-scan in both in-vitro and in-vivo end stations. Specification of the beam to the end stations will be revisited. For the pre-CDR will need to note the capability will need to be considered and added.
   • KK: For in-vivo 1cm beam is quite large. At present the programme at Christie is focused on 1mm beams. AK reported that the 1cm is the maximum. The issue being the maintenance of uniformity over the target area.
   • TG: raised the issue of the reliance of the programme on the as-yet-undemonstrated Gabor lens. He argued that the flexibility implied by the fact that we have a variety of lattices should be emphasised. AK agreed and commented that the simulation used the approximation of solenoid fields which made the move from the Gabor-lens baseline to the use if solenoids (the alternative) straightforward. There would be a financial penalty, however. The parameter table includes the equivalent solenoid.
   • KK: asked for more detail on the ideas related to the automation of sample handling and the end-station specification. She emphasised the need to control the O2 atmosphere for FLASH irradiation studies. It was agreed that discussions between J.Parsons and KK would drive the completion of this section.
   Further points noted:
   • Dosimetry, set-up, and QA are all non-trivial; commercial equipment needs to be considered for these purposes.
   • AK agreed to create link through which to share intermediate versions and drafts:
     • Note added: the information-sharing page is linked here (https://ccap.hep.ph.ic.ac.uk/trac/wiki/Research/DesignStudy/PreCDR/WriteUp).
   The SG noted AK's statement that there is now a hard deadline for the delivery of the pre-CDR which is only 2-weeks away.

3. Status of preparation of pre-publication review of LhARA pre-CDR: KL
   Two documents had been circulated before the meeting. The draft terms of reference for the review meeting and the draft of a letter to G.Blair and N.Geddes. Comments on both documents were solicited.

4. Furthering national and international links: All
   
   • It was agreed to look for a date for a meeting with the IBC spokespeople in June 2020.

5. Review of actions and next steps: All
   
   • Focus now on completion of the pre-CDR.

6. DONMs
   We agreed that the SG should continue to meet and that future dates should be decided through a Doodle poll.

7. AoB
   
   • KK is organising an international meeting on FLASH RT in Manchester on the 20 and 21 March 2020. This is a follow-up on the 14Feb20 meeting which had been a success.

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Meeting details

Venue: Blackett Laboratory Room 532

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Agenda:

1. Notes of last meeting and actions arising:
   • KK/JP: Consult regarding specification of the end stations.
   • KL: Initiate preparation of a meeting with interested parties in the UK and the IBC spokespeople.
     • Done. The spokespeople are ready to join a meeting with us. We need to decide some boundary conditions and then negotiate the date with them. I propose we address this under item 4 below.
   • KL: Set up series of meetings with leads at partner organisations to discuss preparation of R&D programme.
     • Ongoing.

2. Status of development of pre-CDR: AK
   

3. Status of preparation of pre-publication review of LhARA pre-CDR: KL
   
   • Draft terms of reference

4. Furthering national and international links: All
   

5. Review of actions and next steps: All
   

6. DONMs
   To be agreed.

7. AoB
   

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