University of Kansas Medical Center

As HDR Brachytherapy has the potential to increase in popularity due to changes in reimbursement models, the potential of new treatment sites for the modality can be increased through increased oargan-at-risk sparing via integrated shielding. In this work, we...

Independent Monte Carlo (MC) dose calculation of clinical pencil beam scanning (PBS) proton treatment plans requires conversion of beam spot monitor units (MU) into the number of protons transported in MC simulations. This conversion is achieved through absol...

Monte Carlo (MC) methods are widely used for proton therapy dose calculation due to their high physical accuracy, but their stochastic nature results in statistical noise and long computation times, particularly for high-resolution dose calculations and itera...

Dose tracking and image review are paramount in offline adaptive radiotherapy (ART); observable changes in patient anatomy, setup, and dose can trigger plan modifications with the intent of improving clinical outcomes. Radformation’s ChartCheck Adaptive, a no...

This study evaluates a beryllium oxide (BeO)–based optically stimulated luminescent (OSL) dosimetry system (myOSL, RadPro Int. GmbH) for clinical radiotherapy applications.

To reflect on a meaningful early experience of research, learning, and professional growth within a radiation oncology department under the mentorship of a medical physicist

This study aims to investigate the develop ultra-high-dose-rate (UHDR) proton FLASH spatially-fractionated-radiation-therapy (FLASH-SFRT) irradiations on a compact proton synchrocyclotron for preclinical experiments.

Carbon ion radiotherapy (CIRT) offers high LET and RBE for treating radioresistant tumors but suffers from biological dose inhomogeneity due to RBE uncertainties. Techniques like LET painting focus on optimizing LET but do not directly address biological effe...

A recent case is presented to highlight that the MR-conditional hover-based Zephyr system which allows smooth patient transfer while preserving needles/applicators can pose sever thermal injury during MRI scanning on a 1.5 Tesla scanner and requires safety me...

Cs-131 tile implant–based intracranial brachytherapy requires coordinated interdisciplinary efforts spanning imaging, source management, implantation, post-implant planning, and radiation safety. The extent of inter-institutional variability in these practice...

FLASH radiation therapy, which utilizes FLASH effect with ultra-high-dose-rate (UHDR) radiation, has shown promising performance in achieving treatment goals with decreased risks on healthy organs of patients. However, a number of factors, including patient-s...

Proton LATTICE (pLATTICE) therapy delivers spatially heterogeneous dose distributions with high‑dose peaks embedded within low‑dose valleys. Conventional pLATTICE planning typically uses multiple beam angles per peak, making peak localization vulnerable to pr...

To develop an introductory medical physics residency rotation, in collaboration with a radiation oncologist, to address knowledge gaps of incoming residents from non-traditional career paths.

To examine whether new recently reported dose volume constraints of bladder and rectum can be satisfied in clinical prostate CyberKnife SBRTs without sacrificing target coverage. Also, to use a normal tissue complication (NTCP) model to determine the expected...

There is little objective data to guide clinician decisions regarding use of intracavitary (IC) versus combined intracavitary–interstitial (IC/IS) applicators during cervical cancer brachytherapy. Data from retroEMBRACE indicate HRCTV volumes ≥30 cc predict b...

Lattice radiotherapy (LRT) is a spatially fractionated radiation technique that creates three-dimensional arrays of high-dose vertices within tumor volumes. Current LRT implementations face geometric constraints in small and medium-sized tumors, primarily due...

Although immune checkpoint blockade (ICB) benefits only a subset of patients, combining ICB with stereotactic body radiation therapy (SBRT) may enhance therapeutic response. Building on a validated CT-based radiomics score (RS) that predicts patient-level res...

Early prediction of distant metastasis (DM) risk in head and neck cancer (HNC) can enable timely interventions that may improve treatment outcomes. While machine learning approaches using medical imaging have been widely explored for this task, many current m...

Therapy Physics

Quality management at multicenter institutions takes on unique challenges when compared to that at standalone sites. With the trend towards institutions merging, the climate within several physics departments is taking on a new paradigm—quality assurance cann...

Proton minibeam radiation therapy (pMBRT) reduces normal tissue toxicity while preserving tumor control through spatial dose fractionation. However, multi-slit collimators (MSCs) substantially increase monitor unit requirements and delivery times, limiting cl...

Spatially fractionated proton therapy enables spatial dose modulation that may improve normal tissue tolerance; however, generating controlled peak–valley dose patterns while maintaining adequate target coverage remains challenging. In particular, achieving c...

Monitoring patient-reported outcomes (PROs) for radiation-induced toxicities is critical for providing clinical feedback undergoing radiotherapy (RT). While RT is a highly effective cancer treatment, there are still a minority of patients reporting severe sym...

In this work, we experimentally commissioned proton spatially-fractionated-radiotherapy (pSFRT) clinical treatments on a compact proton synchrocyclotron. This involved an initial assessment of proton small-field dosimetry calculation accuracies with comprehen...

To present our institution’s LINAC-based accelerated volume-staged stereotactic radiosurgery (AVS-SRS) planning strategy and outcomes for large (≥6 cc), high-risk cerebral AVMs, where surgical resection and trans-arterial embolization were technically or clin...