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Postgraduate and honours research projects - RadiotherapyPostgraduate Projects in Synchrotron Microbeam Radiation Therapy (MRT)
Professor Rob Lewis (MCSS), Professor Peter Rogers (Monash Institute of Medical Research) Synchrotron generated microbeams offer the potential to develop more effective radiotherapy treatments for certain cancers. Research using Synchrotron microbeam techniques has shown it is possible for animals to tolerate X-ray doses 100 times greater than is possible with conventional methods. Moreover, it has been shown that tumours are destroyed unlike the normal tissue and the survival time of the animals is increased significantly. The synchrotron allows an array of microbeams to be delivered at very high doses to tissue in a very short time period. The radiation dose is spatially fractionated, that is, the beam is split or segmented into an array of uniform microbeams by a multislit collimator. The width of such microbeams is of the order of 30 microns. The distance between adjacent microbeams is of the order of 200 microns. Such a technique is not feasible with conventional radiotherapy X-ray machines in a hospital setting. Physics-based and Biology-based projects are on offer to suitably motivated candidates. The Physics-based projects are largely concerned with dosimetric measurements and simulations of the absorbed dose distribution. Biology-based projects involve the use of cellular and molecular techniques on in-vivo (mouse) and in-vitro samples to better understand the underlying radiobiology of MRT. The Australian-based MRT project is a collaboration between Prof Rob Lewis, Director of the Monash Centre for Synchrotron Science, Prof Peter Rogers and Mr Jeffrey Crosbie from the Centre for Women's Health Research at the Monash Institute of Medical Research and Dr Imants Svalbe from the School of Physics at Monash University. We also have collaborations with other Australian and overseas institutes. Our group have generated novel data from numerous field trips to the SPring-8 synchrotron in Japan. We plan to transfer radiotherapy experiments to the medical beamline of the Australian Synchrotron in 2009. For further information please contact:
Professor Peter Rogers (biology projects)
Professor Rob Lewis (physics projects) Characterisation of microbeam radiation therapy collimators using laboratory and synchrotron X-ray sourcesProf Rob Lewis (MCSS), Dr Andrew Stevenson (CSIRO), Dr Jeff Crosbie (MIMR) Synchrotron microbeam radiation therapy (MRT) is an experimental treatment modality for certain cancers with the potential to revolutionise how clinical radiotherapy is performed. We will perform the first MRT experiments on tumor-inoculated mice on the Imaging & Medical Beamline of the Australian Synchrotron in November 2009. There is important commissioning work required in order for us to perform the best possible MRT right here in Australia without having to go synchrotrons overseas. We are currently constructing a range of microbeam collimators which require characterisation of geometry and dosimetry. We will use both laboratory (CSIRO) and synchrotron X-ray sources to irradiate the collimators, and high resolution film densitometry to measure the absorbed radiation dose. Furthermore we will investigate the feasibility of using the CSIRO laboratory X-ray source at Clayton to irradiate biological cells, which would be of tremendous benefit to our radiobiology colleagues within the Monash Institute of Medical Research (MIMR). Monte Carlo computer simulation of synchrotron microbeam radiation therapyProf Rob Lewis (MCSS), Dr Imants Svalbe, Dr Jeff Crosbie (MIMR) Synchrotron microbeam radiation therapy (MRT) represents a paradigm shift in radiotherapy and has shown promise in pre-clinical studies on tumour-inoculated rodents. The lack of a suitable method to measure the absorbed dose distribution from a lattice of microbeams has hampered progress towards clinical use of MRT. Furthermore, computerised simulations of radiation transport (Monte Carlo methods) have not adequately modelled the physical setup. We will perform the first MRT experiments on tumor-inoculated mice on the Imaging & Medical Beamline of the Australian Synchrotron in November 2009. We have already pioneered the ‘two-film’ method of measurement-based dosimetry for MRT (Crosbie et al, 2008) and now we wish to create a realistic Monte Carlo computer model of X-ray microbeam transport through tissue equivalent material. Such a model would be enormously useful to our research efforts and would greatly inform our decisions in pre-clinical or clinical trials of MRT. Reference: J Crosbie et al. A method of dosimetry for synchrotron MRT using radiochromic films of different sensitivity. Phys Med Biol 53 (2008) 6861-77 |