Medical Physics Training Grant for Image-Guided Therapy Research

描述(申请人提供)：每年有100多万美国居民被诊断出患有癌症。需要先进的成像程序来更准确地定义和非侵入性地描述肿瘤病变。图像引导治疗，包括外照射适形放射治疗(立体定向或强度调节)的图像引导治疗计划，以及密封和非密封源放射治疗，显然需要对每个患者进行最佳治疗。此外，影像引导的直接介入程序(介入放射学或外科手术)的使用继续大幅增加，以改善干预后的预后结果和患者的生活质量。为了改进对肿瘤过程的药物治疗，先进的生理成像技术，使用分子成像、核医学方法或磁共振成像，正在被用来评估新的细胞毒性和/或细胞抑制剂的疗效，远远早于目前的病变大小改变标准，如RECIST。最后，在抗血管生成/抗血管药物等细胞抑制剂的临床试验中，已经发展了对这种生理成像技术的需求，以便建立最佳的生物剂量，而不是最大耐受剂量。由于所有这些原因，显然需要培训和发展具有影像指导治疗专业知识的独立科学家。此外，迫切需要在影像引导放射治疗方面受过必要培训的临床医学物理学家，因为已经有充分证据表明此类人员短缺。为了满足对这种训练有素的人才的巨大需求，目前只有11个医学物理学研究生课程获得了医学物理研究生课程认证委员会(CAMPEP)的认证，其中只有8个在美国。这些项目支持博士后医学物理实习生的培训和发展，还可能有相关的博士后教育项目，以培训个人从事医学物理或相关领域的研究工作。然而，培训机会的任何增长都迅速被迫切需要在影像指导治疗方面接受过扎实的跨学科临床和研究培训的个人所超越。 拟议的新培训计划的主要目标是培养独立研究科学家和临床医学物理学家，并接受先进生理成像技术和图像引导治疗方面的必要培训。培训补助金的提供将使我们的CAMPEP认证的医学物理学研究生教育计划-通常被评为北美顶级计划之一-扩大该领域的受训人员数量，并为培训具有跨学科经验的医学物理学家和成像专家提供一个独特的环境，这在当前，特别是在未来的环境中是迫切需要的。

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): More than one million U.S. inhabitants are diagnosed with cancer each year. Advanced imaging procedures are needed to more accurately define and non-invasively characterize neoplastic lesions. Image-guided therapies, including image-guided treatment planning for external beam conformal radiation therapy (stereotactic or intensity modulated) and for sealed and unsealed source radiation therapy, are clearly needed to optimally treat each individual patient. In addition, there continues to be a dramatic increase in the use of image-guided direct interventional procedures (interventional radiology or surgery) to improve both the prognostic outcome and the patient's quality of life following the intervention. In order to improve the pharmacological treatment of neoplastic processes, advanced physiological imaging techniques, using molecular imaging nuclear medicine approaches or magnetic resonance imaging, are being used to assess the efficacy of novel cytotoxic and/or cytostatic agents much earlier than current lesion size change criteria, such as RECIST, allow. Finally, a need has developed for such physiological imaging techniques to order to establish optimal biologic dose, rather than maximum tolerated dose, in clinical trials of cytostatic agents, e.g., antiangiogenic/antivascular drugs. For all of these reasons, a clear need exists for the training and development of independent scientists with expertise in image-guided therapy. In addition, clinical medical physicists with the necessary training in image-guided radiation therapy are sorely needed, as there is already a well-documented shortage of such individuals. To address the overwhelming need for such well trained individuals, only 11 graduate programs in medical physics are presently accredited by the Commission on Accreditation of Graduate Programs in Medical Physics (CAMPEP), and only 8 of those programs are in the U.S. These programs support the training and development of pre-doctoral medical physics trainees, and may also have associated post-doctoral education programs for training individuals for research careers in medical physics or related fields. However, any growth in training opportunities is being rapidly outpaced by the urgent need for individuals with solid interdisciplinary clinical and research training in image guided therapies. The primary goal of the proposed new training program is the development of independent research scientists and clinical medical physicists with the necessary training in advanced physiological imaging techniques and image-guided therapy. The availability of training grant funds would allow our CAMPEP-accredited Medical Physics Graduate Education Program, commonly ranked as one of the top programs in North America, to expand the number of trainees available to the field and to provide a unique environment for the training of medical physicists and imaging specialists with the interdisciplinary experience that is sorely needed in the current, and particularly in the future environment.