Improved healthy-tissue sparing by automated daily online plan adaptation in proton therapy for head and neck cancer

Principal Investigators: Prof. dr. Mischa Hoogeman (Erasmus MC) and dr. Zoltán Perkó (TU Delft) 

PhD students: Michele Oud (Erasmus MC), Tiberiu Burlacu (TU Delft)

Funding: HollandPTC-Varian 2018

Description

The project’s goal is to reduce the probability of side effects in Proton Therapy (PT) for head and neck cancer by investigating and clinically implementing automated daily online plan adaptation. A successful implementation will provide the means to very precisely target the tumour to potentially escalated doses and to maximally avoid organs-at-risk. To achieve this the project has the following key objectives:

  • To develop automated daily online plan adaptation methods within the EclipseTM Treatment Planning System (TPS) environment;
  • To develop methods for automated independent online Quality Assurance (QA) of the daily adapted treatment plans;
  • To assess residual uncertainties and implement appropriate mitigation measures;
  • To execute a pilot study testing clinical feasibility of automated daily online plan adaptation in PT.