Meet the fellows 4

Andrea_Gutierrez

ANDREA GUTIERREZ

Country of origin: Colombia
Host institution: Delft University of Technology
Hosting group: Medical Physics & Technology department

Project info:

Project:
MuSiC: a novel Multi-Slit prompt gamma Camera for in vivo monitoring of proton therapy

Starting date: 15 January 2018

Abstract:

Proton beam therapy is a relatively new and exciting form of radiotherapy that is only now becoming accessible to most patients. Proton beam therapy enables the radiation dose to be more localised in the cancer tumour than conventional radiotherapy. This advantage can be used to reduce the exposure of the healthy tissue and vital organs surrounding the tumour to radiation.

However, the full potential of proton beam therapy is currently limited by uncertainties associated with the patient setup, daily anatomical variations, organ motion and dose calculation, which can compromise the treatment and result in underdosing the tumour and/or overdosing normal tissues. Thus, online monitoring of proton beam therapy is urgently needed. Nuclear de-excitation in proton-irradiated tissues produces prompt gamma rays, which can be imaged, offering a promising approach for real-time, in vivo treatment verification.

I will be based at TU Delft in Dr Dennis Schaart’s team at the Medical Physics & Technology department, where I will develop and test a novel design of a Multi-Slit prompt gamma Camera (MuSiC) for the non-invasive, real-time, in vivo monitoring of dose delivery in proton beam therapy.

The LEaDing Fellowship will offer me the opportunity to interact intensively with collaborators at the Holland Particle Therapy Centre (Holland PTC), Erasmus MC and LMUC, as well as other academic and industrial partners. I will also have the opportunity to expand my knowledge on the clinical application of physics and technology at the Clinical Physics department of Erasmus MC Radiotherapy.

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