Development of optical spectroscopic and 3D dosimetric systems in radiation therapy

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Over 200,000 new cancer cases are diagnosed in Canada every year, and ~50% of all patients will receive radiotherapy (RT) during the course of their treatment. Personalized and high precision RT are key goals for the next generation of cancer care and my research program will generate basic knowledge in both biological and technical aspects of RT, specifically: (i) the use of Raman spectroscopic (RS) technologies to further the basic understanding of cellular and tissue response to RT, and (ii) the development of 3D radiation measurement tools for the understanding of radiation delivery accuracy. RS FOR UNDERSTANDING RADIOBIOLOGICAL RESPONSE IN RT INTRODUCTION: The concept of personalized dose prescription in RT is currently a major focus of medical physics research and stands to completely transform current RT practice. My previous DG has developed RS-based tools for understanding radiobiological response in cellular and tissue environments with the long term goal of aiding in the development of personalized RT. This DG aims to build advanced analytical protocols into our RS framework. OBJECTIVES: Long term: To develop RS as an analytical tool for understanding biological response to ionizing radiation. 5-year term: (I) To experimentally establish the RS response signatures for a panel of tumour and normal cell lines exposed to RT, thus providing detailed experimental data for biochemical model building. (II) To build data analytic decomposition algorithms to identify biochemical components contributing to RT-induced spectral response. (III) To build a comprehensive logistic regression model of biological RT response. IMPACT: This work will pave the path towards assays capable of providing detailed understanding of biological response to RT, thus enabling future developments in personalized RT. 3D RADIATION DOSIMERTY INTRODUCTION: Due to the highly conformal nature of modern RT delivery strategies, the combination of 3D geometric localization with high dosimetric accuracy remains of paramount importance in RT. My previous DG has developed both optical and x-ray CT-based 3D radiation dosimetry systems for dose verification of complex RT treatment protocols. However, current systems lack dose accuracy or ease of use, and have not gained widespread clinical acceptance. OBJECTIVES: Long term: To develop 3D radiation dosimeters for experimental measurement of complex RT deliveries. 5-year term: (I) To optimize the spatial and dosimetric accuracy of cone beam CT polymer gel dosimetry. (II) To develop a solid tank, iterative reconstruction-based optical CT system. IMPACT: Tools capable of measuring radiation dose with high accuracy and spatial localization will play a central role in future developments of highly complex radiation deliveries. For example, 3D dosimetry systems stand to play a leading role in cases of small, spatially distributed brain metastases where both dose accuracy and spatial localization are of paramount importance.