QUASAR Jacinta at PTCOG57
Last month PTCOG57 was held in Cincinnati, Ohio, USA from 21st – 26th May. Organised by the Particle Therapy Co-Operative Group, this annual conference is a major international meeting which brings together those in the field of particle radiotherapy; physicists, medical professionals, specialised vendors, scientists and researchers alike. The week started with the educational session for the first three days, providing a good overview of relevant themes such as the physics, radiobiology, technology and clinical aspects in particle therapy. This was followed by the scientific meeting which included numerous talks from experts and researchers as well as a poster session.
QUASAR member Jacinta Yap had the opportunity to give a talk on “Implementation of a Non-invasive Online Beam Monitor at a 60 MeV Proton therapy beamline” during the second quality assurance session. She presented preliminary simulations, results and the development of the LHCb VELO detector as a standalone online beam monitor for particle therapy applications. This work contributes to her research as part of the OMA project and QUASAR group, to develop and optimise beam diagnostic tools for particle accelerators. For the VELO beam monitor, Jacinta’s work focuses on the integration of the system and in particular, the particle transport and tracking of the beam as transported through to the delivery system. This is essential to be able to ultimately correlate halo measurements to the core of the beam in order to monitor the proton beam dose delivery in real time.
The conference was a great platform to learn more about the current landscape of particle therapy, recent innovations, technology and clinical advances. The significant international involvement also showed what work is being done in the field across the world to address the challenges associated with particle radiotherapy.