Medical physics and biomedical technology development for next generation dose measurement, optimization and computation tools

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Cancer is now the most important cause of premature death in industrialized country and around 50% of cancer patients will have one form of radiation therapy, alone and in combination with surgery and chemotherapy, as part of their treatments. As with any cytotoxic agents, radiation, which must be used safely, has the distinct advantages of being a local treatment modality for which the basic interaction processes with matter are well-known (relative to systemic chemotherapy agents) i.e. the physical dose and its spatial extension can be predicted with high precision. The search for novel approaches to cure or manage cancer is extremely active. Still, a recent review shows that cancers are mainly "cured" using surgery and radiation therapy. This is because surgery and radiation therapy are also benefiting from continuous technological and scientific advances. Our research program is rooted in this paradigm as the ongoing, long-term objective of the research program is to increase the accuracy of dose measurements, dose optimization and dose calculations for radiation-based precision medicine. This is achieved through a comprehensive research program combining elements of basic and applied research in medical physics and biomedical engineering. The proposed program hinges on radiation physics, optics, numerical optimization problems, image and signal processing and high-performance numerical computing. It is a well-established, wide-ranging and highly productive research program. The methodology used combines both experimental and numerical approaches to build tools and algorithms that are novel and clinically relevant to radiation medicine. The 5-year objectives for this renewal spreads along three main research tracks: 1) Development of new plan optimization algorithms, 2) Development of novel scintillation dosimeters, 3) Monte Carlo method for radiation-matter simulations. Our close connection with clinical teams ensures that our program, and its 5-year objectives listed above, are strongly connected with real clinical need. More importantly, the application of the said technologies and algorithms that we are developing has the potential for improved precision of radiation medicine, and thus quality of life of patients, in Canada and worldwide. As a result, they are highly sought after by the various stakeholders (clinicians, researchers, .) as well as the biomedical technology industry partners, actual and future.