PhD postion on high precision proton therapy for thoracic tumors

We are offering a PhD position within the PROTHORAC project on high precision proton therapy for thoracic tumors.

Closing date: April 27

Advancements in radiotherapy are crucial given the global rise in cancer incidence, which poses significant societal and economic burdens. Effective radiotherapy can vastly improve patient outcomes, reducing mortality and enhancing quality of life. High precision proton therapy for thoracic tumors is an innovation in this perspective and has to be developed and clinically deployed.

You will be part of the PROTHORAC project team, a research collaboration between the three Dutch proton therapy (PT) centers (UMCG, Maastro and HollandPTC) and affiliated universities, funded by KWF Kankerbestrijding.

The overall aim is to advance dose-guided patient positioning for proton therapy of moving tumors in the hemithorax, to ensure automated, fast, accurate and precise patient pre-treatment alignment to increase accurate treatment delivery and trigger treatment adaptation. The expected outcome will be an efficient workflow for precise PT which, when clinically implemented, will reduce radiation-induced side effects.

The project aims to develop the following technical solutions:

1. Develop and clinically evaluate reproducible breath-holding and regularized shallow breathing assisted by mechanical ventilation (Maastro).
2. Develop and implement probabilistic treatment planning to mitigate residual uncertainties more effectively (HollandPTC).
3. Develop and evaluate fast, precise, and efficient automated dose-guided patient positioning (UMCG).
4. Test the proposed solutions in a single workflow in a prospective in-silico feasibility trial (all sites).

The project hosts 3 PhD candidates, each located at one of the PT centers. Close collaboration between the PROTHORAC project PhD candidates is essential and will be accommodated through reciprocal site visits.

Job description

At UMCG, you will develop fast, precise and efficient Artificial Intelligence and Monte Carlo driven automated dose-guided patient positioning (DGPP) in conjunction with probabilistic treatment planning for lung and esophageal tumors and respiratory motion management, developed by the other PT centers.

To that end, your tasks are to:

• Determine the DGPP residual setup uncertainties on the images employed.
• Develop minute-scale methodology for dose-guided moving target proton therapy.
• Validate GPU- and AI-based optimized Monte Carlo dose calculations.
• Test the proposed single workflow in a prospective in-silico feasibility clinical trial.

Organization

As one of the largest university hospitals, the University Medical Center Groningen (UMCG) hosts the Radiation Oncology Department, the first academic center in the Netherlands to feature state-of-the-art photon and proton radiation therapy technologies, benefiting more than 4,500 patients annually. Within the Department, the Division of Medical Physics and Instrumentation is responsible not only for quality control of treatment (planning) methods and technologies, but also for innovation.

The broad team leverages the expertise of medical, computational and academic physicists, medical physics residents, medical physics assistants, IT engineers, LINAC engineers, and gathers more than 30 PhD students and post-doctoral fellows.

What do we need

You are a highly motivated candidate with a master’s degree in (Applied) Physics or Mathematics, Technical Medicine, Biomedical Engineering, or a related discipline. You are able to translate complex theoretical concepts into practical processes and guidelines. As you will be part of a multi-disciplinary team, good communication skills are essential.

You are ambitious, results-driven and an excellent team player. Excellent technical skills as well as academic writing and presentation skills in English are required. You are enthusiastic about solving a problem via programming (Matlab, Python, and C/C++), AI and Monte Carlo simulations and interested in mathematical modelling.

Being able to present a certificate of good conduct is a condition for the appointment.