This year was the first time the radiotherapy department had hosted a summer placement student organised through the South East Physics network (SEPNet). More information can be found about the placements here: https://www.sepnet.ac.uk/for-students/sepnet-summer-placement-scheme-information-students/ The placement was for 8 weeks and undertaken by Katie Ryan who had recently graduated from Southampton University with a BSc in Physics…
Read MoreA full review of the quality control (QC) procedures for the Radiotherapy department’s six TrueBeam linear accelerators was completed in October 2020 by the Dosimetry team. QC procedures and schedules were redesigned to comply with recently published national guidance and the existing modular QC structure was further streamlined to accommodate the new and updated tests.…
Read MoreThe Radiotherapy services team were excited to take delivery of a groundbreaking (literally) radiotherapy machine last weekend – the first of its type in the UK. The Varian ‘ETHOS’ machine uses artificial intelligence to enhance cancer treatment by adapting treatments on a daily basis to optimize the delivery of radiotherapy. The machine will be up…
Read MoreThe European Society for Radiotherapy and Oncology held a physics workshop on Quantitative Imaging within Radiotherapy and this was attended by Rob Julian from the Royal Surrey’s radiotherapy physics department. There were wide ranging discussions on the day and a summary of the outcomes has recently been published in The Green Journal and is Open Access making…
Read MoreThe brachytherapy team today treated a cervical cancer case using the Elekta Advanced Gynaecological Applicator (Venezia). This applicator gives greater control over needle placement to allow consistent treatment of a much wider gross treatment volume than the more traditional tandem and ovoid type applicators. A total of 17 separate treatment channels were used for this…
Read MoreLiz Adams presented in the ‘Implementation/commissioning/QA of artificial intelligence techniques’ workstream of the 3rd ESTRO physics workshop. Her presentation gave some initial results from the work the group have been doing to evaluate auto-contouring software, demonstrating time savings in clinical practice. Further research is ongoing to determine the best way to make the most of…
Read MoreAs well as working hard the team enjoy social outings, which as well as including the inevitable pub trip taking part in events such as those below as well as a number of the group cycling around the surrey hills. St Luke’s Christmas Party 2020 St Luke’s Cancer Centre held its annual party and was…
Read MoreCongratulations to Victor Lee from our Radiotherapy Physics team who has been awarded funding for his HEE/NIHR ICA Pre-doctoral Clinical Academic Fellowship. Victor will be investigating the area of new adaptive radiotherapy for head and neck cancer patients. We wish him the best of luck.
Read MoreThe UK Imaging & Oncology (UKIO) Congress 2019 was hosted this year in Liverpool and is the largest multidisciplinary imaging and oncology conference in the UK, showcasing the latest developments in both imaging and oncology for radiographers, clinicians and physicists alike. The Congress was opened with an inspirational talk from Surrey’s own celebrity physicist, Professor…
Read MoreThe International Symposium on Standards, Applications and Quality Assurance in Medical Radiation Dosimetry (IDOS) 2019 was hosted by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) at the Vienna International Centre. The symposium is of importance to both the dosimetry and medical radiation physics communities and occurs only once every 7 to 10 years. There were over…
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