Radiotherapy and Particle Therapy
Intro to RT and Particle Therapy
The World Health Organisation estimates that 1 in 5 people globally develop cancer in their lifetime and for the UK this figure is 1 in 2. RT (radiotherapy) targets tumours with ionising radiation and is currently used for over 50% of cancer patients around the world.
The majority of radiotherapy machines are X-ray LINACs (linear accelerators) but for some types of cancer, X-ray treatment plans can put sensitive organs near to the tumour at risk which can lead to post-irradiation complications. For these cases, particularly with head and neck cancers, brain or spinal cord tumours and paediatric patients, proton therapy is often needed. Proton beams, and other charged ions including Carbon ions, deliver localised longitudinal doses at the Bragg Peak with minimal scattering and sharp transverse penumbra, minimising unwanted irradiation to healthy tissues surrounding the tumour.
GaToroid
A gantry is a rotating beam delivery device and is one of the methods used in both proton and Carbon ion therapy to deliver 3D conformal irradiation from multiple directions around the patient. Current clinical gantries are 10s of metres in diameter and weigh hundreds of tons, posing significant engineering challenges and financial burden on treatment facilities. GaToroid is a revolutionary new gantry concept designed at CERN that removes the rotation element by using periodic axisymmetric toroidal magnets. It is intended to be a cost effective and space efficient upgrade to the current technology and it is hoped that the static design might also present exciting opportunities for Ultra-High Dose Rate irradiation and the possibility of FLASH radiotherapy treatments.
The Oxford research group led by Professor Dosanjh and in collaboration with CERN and PARTREC have been heavily involved in the magnetic optics designs and modelling for normal conducting VHEE and proton versions of GaToroid. Alongside magnetic flux simulations using finite element analysis (FEA) software such as Opera, and magnet characterisation studies that informed further design work at CERN, beam dynamics studies of simulated particle beams using the RF Track python library have confirmed the working principle of elements in the toroidal magnet design. The group intends to extend these analyses to the full beam line, examining all magnets in the gantry to test its efficacy as a potential future delivery system for particle therapy treatment.
Project Collaborators
- Prof Manjit Dosanjh
- Sam Leadley
- Thomas Fogg (Oxford Masters 2020-2024, now at PARTREC, University of Groningen)
- Cameron Robertson (Oxford DPhil 2020-2024, now at Newcastle Upon Tyne NHS Trust)
- Prof Alexander Gerbershagen (PARTREC, University of Groningen)
- Inaki Ortega Ruiz (CERN)
- Andrea Latina (CERN)
- Luca Bottura (CERN)
- Ariel Haziot (CERN)
Past Students
- Christopher Butler (Oxford, 2019-2023)