Coordinator
Dr B van Asselen (Bram)
Contact
Dr B van Asselen (Bram)
Faculty
Dr Bram van Asselen
Dr Niels Raaijmakers
Date
February – April; for the schedule please check the website of the Master’s programme Medical Imaging.
Register by sending an e-mail to r.allebrandi@umcutrecht.nl
Location
University Medical Center Utrecht
Course content
This course covers practical and theoretical aspects on medical physics
in the field of radiotherapy.
First basic radiation physics will be discussed: e.g. production of
radiation, radioactive decay, characteristics of ionizing radiation,
interaction with matter and measurement of absorbed dose.
The next part covers the essentials of dose calculation using various
algorithms and dose optimization such as intensity modulated therapy
(IMRT) and volumetric arc therapy (VMAT).
The third topic is image guided radiotherapy (IGRT): e.g. inter- and
intrafraction motion, position verification devices (electronic portal
imaging device, cone-beam CT and MRI), real time imaging and various
methods to deal with motion.
Finally topics in the field of MRI guided treatment will be discussed:
e.g. dose delivery in magnetic fields, MRI linac design, workflow and
plan adaptation.
Upon completion of the course the participant understands:
- the basic concepts of the linear accelerator and the generation of X-ray’s
- the photon and electron interactions with matter important for radiotherapy
- the physical aspects of photon beams
- the principles of dosimetry
- the concepts of clinically applied dose calculations algroithms and optimization algorithms
- the concepts of IMRT and VMAT
- the origin of geometrical uncertainties on various time scales
- the various types of adaptive radiotherapy (offline, online and real time)
- the effect of the magnetic field on the dose distribution
- the need for MRI-only planning and fast dose calculation
- the workflow needed for online MRI guided radiotherapy
Credits
You will be awarded 3 EC for attendance; a further 2 EC can be earned on completing the exam and presentation.
Literature
- Khan’s the physics of radiation therapy, Khan, Faiz M, ISBN 9781451182453 (an electronic version of the book is available at the UU library)
- hand-outs
- articles on specific topics