Subventions et des contributions :

Subvention ou bourse octroyée s'appliquant à plus d'un exercice financier. (2017-2018 à 2020-2021)

Modern radiation therapy has advanced through the development of techniques to betterx000D
shape radiation dose to tumour volumes while minimizing adverse dose effects to surroundingx000D
normal tissue. In brachytherapy (Greek: near therapy) radiation sources are placed into thex000D
tumour under robotic control. Placing a dose detector near the radiation source affects dosex000D
in adjacent regions. For this reason, dose delivery validation in brachytherapy is usuallyx000D
based on quality assurance of very simple geometries that are not as complex as thosex000D
clinically encountered during patient treatments.x000D
A promising technique for dose measurement is gel dosimetry which is based on imagingx000D
special gel systems which change when irradiated. The changes can be imaged with variousx000D
techniques available to our laboratory and provide the spatial distribution of the dose. Thex000D
gels mimic tissue and so the dose measured corresponds to the dose to a patient. As a result,x000D
dose measurement is more accurate and we can validate a planned delivery for a givenx000D
patient before treatment starts.x000D
We propose to: i) test current gel formulations for their effectiveness and shortcomings inx000D
brachytherapy dosimetry and create, characterize and test new formulations designedx000D
specifically for brachytherapy applications; ii) develop standard protocols and phantomsx000D
specific to brachytherapy dose delivery; and, iii) develop software to evaluate and comparex000D
gel-measured doses to measurements using conventional tools and to planned dose delivery.x000D
Testing of planned delivery is performed daily in other radiation therapy delivery with x-rayx000D
machines but is not yet available for brachytherapy. We will be the first to develop patientx000D
specific dose delivery validation for brachytherapy.