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

癌症现在是工业化国家过早死亡的最重要原因，大约50%的癌症患者将接受一种形式的放射治疗，单独或联合手术和化疗，作为其治疗的一部分。与任何细胞毒性药物一样，必须安全使用的辐射具有独特的优势，即作为一种局部治疗方式，其与物质的基本相互作用过程是众所周知的（相对于全身化疗药物），即物理剂量及其空间延伸可以高精度地预测。寻找治疗或控制癌症的新方法非常活跃。尽管如此，最近的一项研究表明，癌症主要是通过手术和放射治疗来“治愈”的。这是因为外科手术和放射治疗也受益于不断的技术和科学进步。我们的研究项目植根于这种模式，因为研究项目的长期目标是提高剂量测量、剂量优化和剂量计算的准确性，以辐射为基础的精准医学。这是通过一个综合的研究项目来实现的，该项目结合了医学物理学和生物医学工程的基础和应用研究元素。该方案涉及辐射物理、光学、数值优化问题、图像和信号处理以及高性能数值计算。这是一个完善的、广泛的、高产的研究项目。所使用的方法结合了实验和数值方法来构建与放射医学相关的新颖和临床相关的工具和算法。这一更新的5年目标包括三个主要的研究方向：1)开发新的计划优化算法，2)开发新的闪烁剂量计，3)辐射物质模拟的蒙特卡罗方法。我们与临床团队的密切联系确保了我们的项目及其上面列出的5年目标与实际临床需求紧密相关。更重要的是，我们正在开发的上述技术和算法的应用有可能提高放射医学的精度，从而提高加拿大和全世界患者的生活质量。因此，他们受到各种利益相关者（临床医生、研究人员等）以及生物医学技术行业合作伙伴的高度追捧，无论是现在还是未来。

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.