Microdosimetric characterization of clinical hadron beams

Hadron therapy is the fastest growing cancer treatment strategy providing therapeutic advantages for treatments where a localised energy deposition and/ or sparing of healthy tissues is required. The NHS has invested over £250M for two clinical centres and several private initiatives are ongoing to support the achievement of world class cancer treatment in the UK. However, there are still scientific and technological challenges that need to be addressed in order to achieve hadron therapy full potentials, as for instance accounting for the increased effectiveness of hadron beams compared to photon beams conventionally used in radiotherapy. Despite have been well established that biological effects are driven by the dose distribution at the micrometre scale, this is currently not taken into account in clinical practice due to the lack of tools and methodology to perform accurate and reproducible micro-dosimetric measurements in clinically relevant settings.
This project aims to develop micro-dosimetry techniques for routine clinical measurements. Gas based and solid state detector technologies will be exploited to develop and optimize well characterized reference micro-dosimeters, establishing a traceable measurement chain for spectra of energy deposition in sensitive volumes of the order of a micrometre for clinical hadron beams. This project will contribute to the definition of new track structure operational quantities for clinical use and it will support personalized radiotherapy approaches in accordance to UK Life Science strategy. Moreover, it will contribute to the development of world first reference detector for micro-dosimetry, aiming at reducing uncertainties for measurement in clinical hadron.
The student will take part in experimental campaigns at national and international clinical facilities and he/she will interact with radiation dosimetry and micro-dosimetry detector experts. A key aspect of the project will be the multidisciplinary component and interaction with the clinical, research and industrial partners of the project for the development of micro-dosimetry tools and measurement skills. The student will be part of the Radiation and Medical Physics Group (Department of Physics) at the University of Surrey with research focus on development of radiation detectors for medical application, dosimetry and biological effectiveness for advanced radiotherapy modalities. The project will also include an extensive placement at the National Physical Laboratory (NPL), where the student will be working within the Medical Radiation Science group. NPL staff will provide training and insight into development, use and application of primary standard and radiation dosimetry traceability chain, Monte Carlo simulations and detector characterization.
Collaboration between international leading institutes in Italy, Austria and the UK will provide the student with access to a unique range of multidisciplinary expertise, equipment and facilities. The project aims to deliver high-impact research papers and attract interest from industry and healthcare providers offering unique career development opportunities to the student.