Summary
| Title | Automatic Treatment Planning for Proton Therapy: Investigations of Robustly Optimized Intensity Modulated Proton Therapy Incorporating LET/RBE Criteria and Physical and Biological Uncertainties |
| Reference | UTA-EXPL/FMT/0079/2019 |
| Scientific Area | Medical Physics |
| Funding (PT) | 49 876,81 EUR |
| Funding (US) | 50 000,00 USD |
| Leading Institutions | Institute for Systems Engineering and Computers at Coimbra (INESC Coimbra) Department of Radiation Physics, MD Anderson Cancer Center, UT Austin |
| Duration | 12 months 15 months |
| Start date | December 1, 2020 |
| End date | November 30, 2021 28 February, 2022 |
| Keywords | Computer-aided inverse planning, Radiotherapy, Protons, Robust optimization |
Compared with photon-based radiotherapy, proton radiotherapy (PR) has specific features that make it highly appropriate for cancer treatment. However, PR is much more vulnerable to uncertainties, not only to inter and intra-fractional anatomic variations but also to the uncertainties in relative biological effectiveness. AT@PT will apply robust beam angle and intensity modulation optimization methodologies to render radiation dose distributions less sensitive to uncertainties.
This project aims at achieving treatment planning solutions that are scalable, reliable, fast, and cost-effective. It will create opportunities to truly tailor radiation treatments to patients, potentially resulting in increased cure or reduced incidence of severe radiation-induced morbidity. The gain in treatment quality can even be obtained at a reduced cost due to automation, which can also support the selection of patients for novel expensive treatments.
The outcomes of the research activities, leveraged by the collaboration of the two research teams, can also result in knowledge transfer to industry and contribute to scientific job creation.
Key Outcomes
- Algorithms developed for scenario generation, beam angle and intensity modulation optimization;
- Scientific production (two manuscripts, at least, will be submitted to international journals; presentations in, at least, three international conferences (highly dependent on the global evolution of the pandemic situation) and one M.Sc. thesis).
Papers and Communications
- Cao, W., Rocha, H., Mohan, R., Lim, G., Goudarzi, H. M., Ferreira, B. C., & Dias, J. M. (2022). Reflections on beam configuration optimization for intensity-modulated proton therapy. In Physics in Medicine & Biology (Vol. 67, Issue 13, p. 13TR01). IOP Publishing. https://doi.org/10.1088/1361-6560/ac6fac
- Rocha, H., & Dias, J. (2021). A Randomized Direct-Search Approach For Beam Angle Optimization in Intensity-Modulated Proton Therapy. In Computational Science and Its Applications – ICCSA 2021 (pp. 320–332). Springer International Publishing. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-86976-2_22
E-Posters
Project Team
Joana Dias
AT@PT
Radhe Mohan
AT@PT
- Other team members in Portugal: Humberto Rocha (Co-PI; INESC Coimbra) and Brígida Ferreira (INESC Coimbra)
- Other team members in Texas: Wenhua Cao (MD Anderson Cancer Center) and David Grosshans (MD Anderson Cancer Center)
