PhD position for Very High Energy Electron (VHEE) Radiotherapy

Currently, externally applied X-ray beams (using photons) is the dominant radiotherapy option as treatment of cancer. A new and emerging treatment option is to use Very High Energy Electrons (VHEE). Compared to X-ray radiotherapy, the specific characteristics of VHEE indicate that it could be used to more successfully eradicate tumors, or to substantially reduce observed severe radiation-induced side-effects, with often a detrimental impact on the patient’s quality of life after cure.

VHEE radiotherapy is currently under development, and does not yet exist as clinical treatment. In this project, you will develop computerized algorithms to investigate how to best optimize patient-specific dose distributions for VHEE, how to maximally use VHEE-specific properties, and the benefit of using VHEE for various cancers. Also, it will be investigated which technical requirements are essential, to steer development of future VHEE treatment devices. Finally, you will in collaboration with physicians compare VHEE radiotherapy against conventional radiotherapy options. The overall aim of the project is to investigate if VHEE radiotherapy can sufficiently reduce the probability of developing radiation-induced side-effects for a broad group of patients, to warrant further clinical development of the technique.

This project is a close collaboration with a PhD candidate at Delft University of Technology (TU Delft) on dose computation, and a PhD candidate at Lausanne University Hospital (CHUV) who will work on VHEE-FLASH radiotherapy. In addition, there is collaboration with CERN to facilitate experimental VHEE measurements, and an industry partner, which can facilitate worldwide clinical application.

Erasmus MC Cancer Institute encompasses one of the largest radiotherapy departments in Europe, treating over 5500 patients per year. The radiotherapy department has a wide-ranged and internationally renowned research program, focused on improvement of clinical radiotherapy practice. Much of the applied research is physics/technology driven. The department is a world leader in development of radiotherapy optimization algorithms for different modalities.

The research will be performed in a multi-disciplinary environment with physicists, mathematicians, scientific programmers, radiation technologists, clinicians, PhD students and postdocs. The team is broadly recognized as a world leader in the field of automated generation of highest quality plans using mathematical optimization approaches. The hired PhD researcher will closely collaborate with other investigators involved in projects on treatment planning. As a PhD student you will have access to the courses of the Erasmus MC postgraduate school of Molecular Medicine and to the PhD educational program on medical physics, and you will participate in the departmental journal clubs, and R&D meetings.