Princess Margaret Cancer Centre

Cervical cancer remains a major global health burden, with Image-guided High-Dose-Rate Brachytherapy (HDR-BT) serving as a critical treatment modality. While MRI is the gold standard for defining the Gross Tumor Volume (GTV), High-Risk Clinical Target Volume...

Patient-facing AI systems are increasingly used for education, yet their performance can vary widely depending on how users communicate. This study presents the development and evaluation of an AI-based chatbot designed to deliver consistent and reliable radi...

The dielectric wall accelerator (DWA) offers a low-cost solution for proton therapy with non-resonant waveguides. Radial waveguides (RWGs) transport electronically-switched nanosecond pulses and produce an accelerating electric field in the beam pipe. Previou...

To characterize how well voluntary breath hold during imaging reduces motion-induced artifacts in HyperSight cone-beam CT (CBCT) images that make it challenging to provide adaptive radiotherapy of moving targets in the lung on the Varian Ethos platform.

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Xerostomia is a common toxicity after radical head and neck cancer (HNC) radiotherapy (RT), causing long-term quality-of-life impairment. Although salivary function may recover, dose–response relationships governing long-term recovery remain unclear. This stu...

Artificial intelligence holds significant promise for radiation oncology, yet clinical adoption is frequently stalled by the gap between conceptual understanding and practical implementation. This three-part educational track provides a start-to-finish playbo...

Therapy Physics

Treatment plan review is normally focused on ensuring the quality of individual plans. However, what begins as a routine treatment plan review can occasionally result in hard-earned lessons that lead to significant improvements in clinical practice -- lessons...

To predict achievable Gamma Knife (GK) radiosurgery plan quality and treatment time through analysis of geometric features from a large atlas of previously treated brain metastases.

The accessibility of proton therapy is limited by the size and cost associated with traditional acceleration techniques. The dielectric wall accelerator (DWA) was proposed as a low-cost, compact proton accelerator capable of generating suitable beams for prot...

Dynamic contrast enhanced CT (DCE-CT) is a functional imaging method used to measure vascular perfusion with high resolution and clinical value. DCE cone beam CT (DCE-CBCT) has been prevented by low image quality and lengthy acquisition, however, enhanced ima...

Tumor heterogeneity within and across tumors contributes to variable therapeutic response by altering biophysical transport barriers in the tumor microenvironment (TME). Elevated interstitial fluid pressure (IFP) and reduced hydraulic conductivity (K) generat...

Proton therapy (PT) has demonstrated superior healthy tissue sparing compared to photon radiotherapy for various sites; however, PT systems are expensive, which limits global availability. The dielectric wall accelerator (DWA) is proposed as a low-cost, compa...

We previously developed an automatic catheter reconstruction model (CorneliUS) that achieves approximately 93% needle detection efficiency in post‑implant 3D ultrasound images for prostate HDR brachytherapy. The remaining undetected (AI‑missed) needles are ty...

To assess dose calculation accuracy on cone-beam computed tomography (CBCT) images relative to the RayStation CBCT correction framework (CBCTcorr) across multiple CBCT platforms, anatomical sites, and clinical scenarios.

To evaluate the feasibility and accuracy of a hyperspectral plastic scintillation detector (PSD) system (Medscint HYPERSCINT QA-200 with PRB-0019 probe)—commonly used for brachytherapy dosimetry—for Gamma Knife (GK) small-field dosimetry, and to quantify dete...

Accurate delivery of MR-guided adaptive radiotherapy (MRgART) for prostate SBRT is influenced by inter- and intra-fraction motion, planning target volume (PTV) margin selection, and verification adaptation. Our study quantified motion magnitude and dosimetric...

To validate and assess the performance of an AI-assisted tool, CorneliUS, for needle reconstruction in high dose rate (HDR) ultrasound-guided prostate brachytherapy in an independent clinical setting.

To develop and validate a female pelvis-specific deep learning deformable image registration (DIR) framework optimized for longitudinal CT imaging, enabling accurate dose accumulation and cumulative dose assessment in gynecological radiotherapy.

To expedite the diagnosis-to-treatment workflow in radiation oncology, this work evaluates a machine learning approach for generating synthetic radiation therapy (RT) planning images directly from diagnostic computed tomography (CT) images, potentially elimin...

To investigate the combined effects of gold nanoparticles (GNPs) and ultrahigh dose rate (UHDR) electron beams on reactive oxygen species (ROS) generation under FLASH radiotherapy conditions using Monte Carlo (MC) simulations.

Diffusing Alpha-emitter Radiation Therapy (‘Alpha DaRT’) is a novel modality for treating solid tumours with alpha particles from the decay of 224Ra. This study aims to model well chamber response to derive activity calibration coefficients for simple and rap...

This project uses a multi-modal method to train a foundational model for medical images of cervical cancer patients. Multiple imaging modalities are used over the course of treatment: multiparametric MRI, CT, cone-beam CT, and PET when indicated. This motivat...

To develop and evaluate a custom convolutional neural network (CNN) using baseline 68Ga-DOTATATE PET/CT imaging to predict disease control following 177Lu-DOTATATE therapy in patients with neuroendocrine tumors (NETs).

Configuring clinical linear accelerators (LINACs) for ultra-high dose rate (UHDR) electron experiments typically requires invasive hardware modification or manufacturer intervention, limiting accessibility. We developed an independent, non-invasive, software-...

To investigate the optimal wall thickness for a Rexolite beam pipe for a proof-of-concept dielectric wall accelerator (DWA). In a DWA, protons are accelerated by a virtual traveling wave, created by switching electric fields along a dielectric beam pipe. The...

To evaluate the relationship between quantitative MRI relaxation parameters (T1, T2, T*2, and T'2) at 3T and hypoxia level in three-dimensional (3D) cancer cell spheroids under controlled in-vitro conditions, using western blot measurements as biological grou...

To conduct a national quality control project at Kenyan cancer centres in an effort to assess agreement between radiation treatment planning and delivery at Kenyan cancer centres.

In Total Skin Electron Therapy (TSET) using the Stanford technique, the delivered dose is strongly affected by daily positioning uncertainties. This study presents an integrated framework that combines AI-assisted rapid generation of patient-specific six-post...

High dose-rate brachytherapy (HDR-BT) is an essential component of cervical cancer treatment. While deep learning has shown promise to automate tasks within HDR-BT, such as segmentation of organs-at-risk (OARs) and targets, quality labelled data is limited. T...

To develop a 3D unified deep learning model for predicting dose distribution of various sites and protocols by conditioning the model using text-embedding representation for each protocol.

Our current clinical practice relies on using a chest wall contour as a surrogate for rib contours, as contouring individual ribs is prohibitive due to time constraints. This process introduces uncertainty to the validity of fracture risk estimates as derived...

18F-fluorodeoxygluose positron emission tomography (18F-FDG-PET) is clinically useful in cervical cancer care and has been shown to reduce interobserver variation of the residual gross tumour volume in brachytherapy. Chemical exchange saturation transfer MRI...

Accurate radiation dosimetry is critical for patient safety and treatment quality in radiotherapy. Conventional thermoluminescent dosimeters have limitations in re-readability and flexibility. This study aims to explore ZnSe nanowire-based optically stimulate...

This work describes the development of a flexible educational framework designed to address required curriculum and professional competencies for Radiation Oncology (RO) and Medical Physics (MP) residents implemented in two distinct clinical and academic envi...

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Therapy Physics

Peer review is a critical quality assurance step in radiation therapy (RT), but not all cases require the same level of attention. We aimed to develop a machine learning (ML) tool to help prioritize breast RT plans for peer review based on their likelihood of...

To investigate the diagnostic performance of perfusion and diffusion MRI in differentiating progressing tumours from radiation necrosis in brain metastases (BM) post-radiosurgery, using a radiomic-based machine learning classification approach.

Artificial intelligence is increasingly being introduced into radiation therapy workflows, yet the path from procurement to clinical integration remains challenging. Formal guidance for clinical AI implementation is emerging but lags vendor introduction of th...

Custom software in the therapy context presents a serious question. Is it an essential component of operations and innovation or is it an accident waiting to happen? This session will tackle this question in a lively debate format. The questions explored here...

Therapy Physics

Therapy Physics

Therapy Physics

A microfluidic lab-on-a-chip integrating an I-125 brachytherapy seed has recently been developed for radiobiological irradiation of spheroids. This study investigates a novel seed-through-film geometry suitable to validate the dosimetry of this device in the...

Prospective Hazard Analysis (PHA) plays an increasingly central role in modern radiation therapy, spurred by the formation and publication of AAPM Task Group 100 in 2016 [Huq MedPhys 2016]. TG 100 identified that many errors that occur in radiation oncology a...

Reference dosimetry forms the foundation of accurate dose delivery in radiation therapy. Two primary calibration protocols dominate clinical practice: AAPM’s TG-51, used throughout North America and select countries, and IAEA’s TRS-398, adopted widely across...