By the end of this course participants should be able to:

• Understand the radiobiological and physical basis and clinical rationale for particle therapy
• Have a basic understanding of accelerator technology, present equipment and the practical complexities of building a particle centre
• Understand the differences between active and passive beam delivery technology, and details of treatment planning, specifically of intensity modulated therapy and motion management
• Know the clinical rationale for proton and carbon ion therapy, the present indications and clinical practice according to various disease sites
• Know the current clinical evidence for particle therapy, and the status of clinical trials
• Have a general understanding of the integration of particle therapy in general radiation oncology
• Summarise the latest technical developments
• Have some knowledge of future directions in the research and development of particle therapy.

Course Content

• Physical aspects of particle therapy
• Ion source accelerator, beam line and beam delivery technology
• Biological aspects of particle therapy
• RBE determination, biophysical modelling plan optimisation
• Beam delivery: passive and active techniques.

Physics: image guidance techniques, dosimetry and quality assurance

• Imaging for treatment planning
• Treatment planning for proton and carbon ion therapy
• Plan evaluation, robustness, quality assurance
• Intensity-modulated particle therapy, image-guided particle therapy, dosepainting, LET-painting
• Physical and technical approaches to the treatment of moving organs.

Clinical indications, anti-cancer effects, toxicity, challenges and limitations of particle therapy

• Clinical challenges and pitfalls of proton and carbon ion therapy
• Current clinical indications and applications for proton and carbon ion therapy according to pathological and anatomical disease characteristics
• Review of the literature, clinical case reviews and discussions, review of clinical trials
• New trends in radiation oncology and integration of particle therapy
• Future clinical directions and developments.

Roadmap for a particle therapy project

• How to build a new particle therapy facility – from project planning to starting clinical operation
• New technologies for hospital based particle centres
• How to expand an existing radiotherapy department with particle therapy.

Protocol and journal club about latest clinical and physics developments.

Guided tour of particle therapy facility.

Prerequisites

Before commencing this course participants should:

• Have a basic understanding of radiobiology and radiation physics
• Know the basics of radiotherapy and radiotherapy planning
• Have a general understanding about the evaluation of medical evidence.

Teaching Methods

Tutorials, journal club, case reviews and discussions, tour of the proton facility.

Methods of Assessment

• MCQ
• Evaluation form.