Ensuring treatment efficacy and patient safety through continuous tumour monitoring during cancer radiotherapy

Funding or Partner Organisation: The Cancer Council NSW (NSW Cancer Council Project Grants)
National Health & Medical Research Council (NHMRC - Ideas Grants)

Start year: 2021

Summary: The human body is highly dynamic and tumours move. To account for tumour motion, current clinical standard enlarge the treatment beams based on the patient motion at a moment in time. This approach often under-estimates the motion during treatment. As the patient tumour motion varies on each treatment day, tumours in the abdomen and thorax could receive 20% less dose than that prescribed, thereby compromising the effectiveness of the treatment. On the other hand, enlarging the treatment field to account for more motion will result in extra radiation dose to nearby healthy organs, increasing unwanted toxicity. In the modern era of high dose radiotherapy treatment in less sessions, the compromise between tumour motion and collateral damages of healthy organs is no longer a satisfactory solution to ensure the cancer is hit 100% of the time. In the post pandemic world, to minimise the risk of acquiring infectious diseases for cancer patients, an effective solution to ensure every treatment counts toward curing cancer becomes even more important than ever. To solve this problem, we have pioneered and patented a paradigm-shifting technology (PCT/AU2019/050212) to solve the problem of motion during cancer radiotherapy. This project will realise the world-first clinical implementation of Direct Beam-view Tracking (DBT) during radiotherapy treatments for cancer patients, through the following aims: Aim 1: Develop DBT to track cancer of the prostate, liver and pancreas. Aim 2: Experimentally evaluate DBT in a clinical environment. Aim 3: Clinically evaluate DBT in existing clinical trials for prostate, pancreatic and liver cancer patients. The expected outcome of this project is a world-first technology platform that will enable real-time motion management on every standard treatment machine, catapulting radiation therapy to a new era of high precision treatments, directly benefiting patients with better cancer targeting and lower toxicity.

FOR Codes: Medical Physics, Radiation Therapy, Biomedical Engineering not elsewhere classified, Clinical Health (Organs, Diseases and Abnormal Conditions), Expanding Knowledge in Technology, Clinical health, EXPANDING KNOWLEDGE

Acknowledgement of Country

UTS acknowledges the Gadigal people of the Eora Nation, the Boorooberongal people of the Dharug Nation, the Bidiagal people and the Gamaygal people, upon whose ancestral lands our university stands. We would also like to pay respect to the Elders both past and present, acknowledging them as the traditional custodians of knowledge for these lands.