Raj Jena, Andy Parker
Introduction
Radiotherapy is an essential aspect of cancer treatment, responsible for destroying the cancer in 40% of those patients who are cured. It makes a greater contribution to overall survival than chemotherapy. This project will build upon STFC-funded research to deliver a high performance, service-based computing solution, ready for use with existing treatment platforms, and validate this solution in partnership with a leading technology supplier, Siemens Healthcare. Whether treatment is implemented with X-rays or particle beams, a common characteristic is increased precision in dose delivery. The ability to target only the cancerous tissue has immediate benefits in terms of both survival and quality of life. High precision radiotherapy treatment comes at a cost, in terms of manual, labour-intensive treatment planning. Before a patient can be treated, a radiation oncologist has to analyse the results of imaging with multiple modalities - CT scans, X-rays, MRI scans and PET images - delineate the tumour, and all adjacent anatomical structures before the planning physicist can calculate the optimal selection of beam angles and intensities. They must take account also of the movement of tumours and organs during radiotherapy. Furthermore, as tumour volume and position will change over time, this analysis would ideally be repeated for each radiotherapy session
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