Computational techniques for studying interactions of radiation with matter and applications in radiotherapy physics

点击翻译按钮获取中文摘要

Radiotherapy is commonly used as a treatment for cancer. All forms of radiotherapy aim to maximize tumour cell kill while limiting healthy tissue radiation exposure. Despite the widespread application of radiotherapy to treat cancer, fundamental questions relating to the interactions of radiation with matter remain. Further, prospective radiotherapy treatment methods prompt new areas of investigation. This research program involves the development and application of sophisticated computer codes which employ the so-called `Monte Carlo' (MC) method to model the passage of radiation through matter. These MC simulations can be used to compute dose, the energy deposited by radiation in tissue, as well as to study a wide array of issues relevant for radiotherapy treatments. Computational approaches will be developed to study dosimetry and radiation interactions at different length scales from patient organs down to the individual cells in tissue. These approaches will be applied to research questions for current and prospective radiotherapy treatment methods. An existing treatment method of interest is brachytherapy, in which radioactive sources are placed next to or inside a tumour (in, e.g., the prostate, breast, or eye). Widely-used dose calculation approaches are inaccurate; a fast, accurate, and comprehensive MC dose calculation algorithm is under development and will be used to study brachytherapy physics. There is increasing interest in simulating radiation interactions and radiation-induced damage at the level of cellular constituents and DNA. New computational approaches must be developed for these studies and will be used to study issues for prospective radiotherapy treatment methods, such as the delivery of radiotherapy via nanometre-sized devices and other targeted radiotherapies. This research will advance our knowledge of the interactions of radiation with matter and radiation dosimetry and will have implications in many fields involving radiation including diagnostic imaging, radiation protection, and radiobiology. Further, results of this research will find application in the medical sciences.