Real-time Adaptive Particle Therapy of Cancer

ended

The Real-time Adaptive Particle Therapy Of CanceR (RAPTOR) consortium comprises world-class research institutes, non-academic particle therapy (PT) centres and industrial providers of PT equipment, offering a platform for intercultural, interdisciplinary and intersectoral training of early stage researchers (ESRs) in the field of medical physics with a focus on real-time adaptive PT. This comprehensive expertise and infrastructure is required to address and solve challenges in the clinical implementation of real-time adaptive PT. PT is an advanced type of radiotherapy used to treat a constantly rising number of cancer patients. PT allows to target tumour with a high accuracy while sparing healthy surrounding tissue from dose. However, changes in anatomy or positioning and organ motion give rise to uncertainties which need to be further minimized to exploit the full benefits of PT. Adapting PT plans in real time has the potential to provide truly personalized treatments, allowing for better target control and less toxicity. A move towards wide clinical implementation of adaptive PT approaches is currently prohibited by (i) stepwise treatment workflows that are time-consuming and largely manual, (ii) the inflexibility of commercial PT equipment, and (iii) the wide range of PT equipment and protocols. RAPTOR ESRs will conduct research projects at both academic and non-academic health care facilities which will sharpen their focus on clinical needs with respect to real-time adaptive PT. The active involvement of industry ensures that the transfer of industry-relevant skills is an integral part of individual ESR projects. This will guarantee rapid translation of clinical needs into innovative and marketable solutions. RAPTOR aims to train a new generation of researchers, enabling a paradigm shift from treatment approaches that are manual and stepwise to those that are automatic and seamless, while assuring standardized clinical implementation of real-time adaptive PT.