Job - Onderzoeker in opleiding Dose guided adaptive radiotherapy for pancreas cancer

The AMC Department of Radiotherapy has a physics team consisting of physicists, computer scientists, technicians and project workers (PhD students and postdocs). Patient treatment, research and education are fully integrated. About 2100 new patients are treated annually within the department. For external beam radiotherapy 6 linear accelerators (linacs) are available (4 in Amsterdam, 2 in Almere). Four (within a year: all) linacs are equipped with a Cone Beam CT (CBCT). For treatment preparation, two CT-simulators are available; in addition, 3D virtual simulation and planning systems are in use and are further developed in close collaboration with industrial partners. For the upcoming years, image and dose guided radiotherapy - also focus of this project - is a rapidly growing area of interest.

The successful candidate will work on the KWF-sponsored project “Dose guided adaptive radiotherapy for pancreas cancer, using Cone-Beam CT”. Prior to treatment, the tumour is marked with several radio-opaque markers. During the actual irradiation (consisting of about 20 treatment session) the patient's internal anatomy is visualized with a Cone-Beam CT. Challenges during treatment include breath correlated movement and deformations of both the pancreas and surrounding organs. The tumour location is clearly visualized with the markers but visibility of the surrounding tissue is limited by the relatively poor contrast of the CBCT. In this project, methods will be developed to restrain and predict movements and deformation. These improvements will enable a better accuracy, sparing of healthy tissues, a raise of the tumour dose and ultimately probably better clinical results. The project will run within a multi-disciplinary environment including physicists, technicians and physicians from the departments of Radiation Oncology and Gastroenterology and Hepatology.

• Master’s degree in Physics or other relevant area.
• Computer programming skills are beneficial.
• Good communicative skills
• Team player in a challenging diverse clinical environment.

A full time PhD position resulting in a PhD-thesis.  Employment by AMC Medical Research for a period of 48 months. A gross salary of € 2.107,00 per month in the first year, with an increase to the maximum of € 2.700,00 per month in the fourth year. In addition the AMR BV has an End of Year Bonus of 8.3% and a holiday payment of 8% of the gross yearly salary. As a PhD candidate, you are entitled to follow courses provided by the AMC Graduate School.

Dr. G. van Tienhoven,g.vantienhoven@amc.uva.nl, radiation oncologist or Dr. A. Bel (A.Bel@amc.uva.nl), head clinical physics and project leader. Tel. via secretary: 020 56 64231.