On Nov. 07th, Prof. Bortfeld and Dr. Yan, from the Massachusetts General Hospital/the Harvard Medical School, USA visited SIBET.
Prof. Zhang Ruobing of our institute, hosted the meeting. He welcomed them warmly and gave them a detailed introduction of the history and current development of SIBET. Around 30 staff members from SIBET attend the meeting and communicate with one another.
Prof. Bortfeld presented that Proton therapy has clear physical advantage compared to photon. Protons deliver more conformal dose to target and less dose to organs, therefore has less side effect. However, despite the advantage proton therapy, a major drawback is the higher capital cost of the proton therapy facility. The cost and space requirements of a proton facility far exceed those of conventional X-ray therapy. Currently, there is only 1% of patient treated with proton therapy. We, MGH and MIT, are working on new technologies to reduce the size and capital cost of proton therapy so that it will be available to all cancer patients.
On Nov. 08th, Prof. Bortfeld and Dr. Yan visited SIBET exhibition hall, Dept. Medical Diagnostics and Dept. Medical Optics,ect.
Thomas Bortfeld, PhD, a physicist by training, is a Professor at the Harvard Medical School and serves as the Director of the Radiation Biophysics Division at the Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH). He has been one of the pioneers of the development of intensity-modulated radiation therapy (IMRT) and optimized “inverse” treatment planning. He and his team are refining IMRT through multi-criteria and robust optimization. Another research focus of his is in proton therapy. His recent research interests include imaging-guided temporo-spatial optimization of treatment dynamics, better ways to define the clinical target volume, and making the benefits of proton therapy available to more patients.
