Abstract: The progress and technological development of functional and molecular techniques for imaging tumours has offered the possibility of redefining the target in radiation therapy and devising the treatment in an innovative manner. Research has been conducted towards this aim, but the current practice in radiation therapy is still, at its best, based on the physical optimisation of the dose distribution according to the anatomical information regarding the localisation and the extent of the tumour and the normal tissue. Indeed, the routine planning in clinical radiation treatment does not generally take into account the particular radiation sensitivity of the tumour of an individual patient or the spatial and temporal heterogeneity of tumour resistance. This talk will present a novel approach for using functional information from advanced imaging modalities for the individualisation and the adaptation of the treatment.

The results of two studies will be presented: a treatment planning study based on individual tumour hypoxia assessment for H&N and lung cancer patients based on PET imaging and one on treatment adaptation based on the assessment of the tumour responsiveness based on two subsequent FDG-PET images also for H&N and lung cancer patients.

About the speaker: Iuliana Toma-Dasu is Professor in Medical Radiation Physics at the Department of Physics, Stockholm University and Head of the Medical Radiation Physics division affiliated to the Department of Oncology and Pathology at Karolinska Institutet.

Starting from 2021 she is also the Editor.in-Chief of Physica Medica -  European Journal of Medical Physics, the official publication of several international organization for Medical Physics including EFOMP  - the European Federation of Organisations for Medical Physics.

She is also the coordinator of the professional education of hospital physicists in Stockholm through the MSc program in Medical Radiation Physics at Stockholm University. In parallel with her deep involvement in the educational program for the medical physicists, her main research interests focus on biologically optimised adaptive radiation therapy, radiobiological modelling and particle therapy.