ESTRO 38 Abstract book

S58 ESTRO 38

available. It needs prescription at the right time. It has to be given at the right form. The whole of these elements are covered by the process of ‘Quality Assurance’ which is the responsibility of all bodies involved”. I met Emmanuel vander Schueren early in my career on a European Quality network in RT meeting, he made an impact on me. Since then I have had a special interest on Quality Management in RT and in particular in quality assessment. It is an honor and responsibility to receive this award and I commit myself to be an ambassador of his values. SP-0109 The role of women in the brachytherapy field C. Haie-Meder 1 1 Institut Gustave Roussy, Radiation Oncology Department, Villejuif, France Abstract text Brachytherapy was initiated by a famous woman, Marie Sklodowska-Curie, after her radium discovery in 1898. She was awarded two Nobel prices in 1903 and 1911, she was the first woman in Europe to get the degree of Doctor of Science, and she became the first female Professor at Sorbonne. She resigned patenting the radium isolation method, claiming that « Radium is a chemical element, a property of all humans ». The Radium Institute was founded in Paris in 1912 due to Marie Curie ‘s efforts. Thousands of patients were treated with radium for cancers. Her determination, her commitment, her humanity ideal were the basis for new generations of women researchers including medical physicists and radiation oncologists. Among them, at Gustave Roussy, Simone Laborde, head of the radiation department, was one of the first to write a book on brachytherapy technique. She fighted against the concept that the heaviest treatments again cancer were the most efficient, after having seen severe complications among her cancer patients. In France, brachytherapy became very popular and women widely contributed to its development : The physicist Andrée Dutreix established the rules of the Paris system, still currently in use. Her pupil, Edith Briot, contributed to the spread of brachytherapy participating to the ESTRO courses and currently Isabelle Dumas who is in charge of brachytherapy physics at Gustave Roussy. Ginette Marinello, was the author of the famous « Practical Manual of Brachytherapy ». Monique Pernot, radiation oncologist in Nancy, accumulated a tremendous clinical experience, especially in head and neck cancer brachytherapy. Her numerous publications served as a basis for dose-rate values in low dose-rate brachytherapy. Outside France, a lot of physicists are dedicated to brachytherapy : Inger Lena Lamm, Taran Paulsen- Hellebust, Astrid de Leeuw, Nicole Nesvacil, Jamema Swamidas, Kari Tanderup, being now the Director of the ESTRO gynaecological course, and many others. Their commitments is the living proof of the continuous interest in brachytherapy. A lot of female doctors have contributed to the development of brachytherapy. Among them Ina Jürgenliemk-Schulz, who is the president elect of GEC- ESTRO, Li Tee Tan, Angela Rovirosa, Alina Sturdza, Henrike Westerveld, Claire Charra-Brunaud, Laurence Thomas, Hana Stankusova and many others. Outside Europe, important ladies, such as Judith Stitt, Beth Erickson , Akila Viswanathan and of course Patricia Eifel are among the most famous brachytherapists in the United States. Female doctors represent currently 60% of the medical community. Their contribution to the development of brachytherapy represents a tremendous step forward. Let’s hope that their achievements will be more widely recognized in the future. Award Lecture: Iridium Award Lecture

Symposium: MR-guided radiation therapy: hybrid machines and treatment adaptation

SP-0110 Magnetic resonance based small animal radiotherapy in neuro-oncology C. Vanhove 1 , B. Descamps 1 , J. Bolcaen 2 , K. Deblaere 3 , M. Acou 3 , F. De Vos 4 , T. Boterberg 5 , C. De Wagter 6 , J. Kalala 7 , H. Giorgio 7 , C. Van Den Broecke 8 , L. Leybaert 9 , E. Decrock 9 , A. Vral 9 , S. Vandenberghe 1 , R. Van Holen 1 , I. Goethals 2 1 Ghent University, Institute Biomedical Technology Ibitech, Gent, Belgium ; 2 Ghent University Hospital, Department Of Nuclear Medicine, Gent, Belgium ; 3 Ghent University Hospital, Department Of Radiology, Gent, Belgium; 4 Ghent University, Laboratory of Radiopharmacy, Gent, Belgium; 5 Ghent University Hospital, Department Of Radiation Oncology, Gent, Belgium; 6 Ghent University, Department of Radiation Oncology, Gent, Belgium; 7 ghent University Hospital, Department Of Neurosurgery, Gent, Belgium; 8 Ghent University Hospital, Department of Pathology, Gent, Belgium ; 9 Ghent University, Department of Basic Medical Sciences, Gent, Belgium Abstract text Compared to computed tomography (CT), magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) provides vastly superior soft- tissue contrast. This makes it much easier to visualize lesion boundaries that will result in a much better delineation of the target volume, helping to better irradiate the lesion and avoid surrounding tissue.Therefore, combining MRI with CT data is increasingly used for radiotherapy planning in the clinic. This combined CT/MRI dataset contains both the information required for targeting and for dose calculations. During this presentation, three studies will be presented where MRI and small animal radiotherapy were combined in the field of neuro-oncology. In a first study, we used a combined CT/MRI dataset to guide the irradiation of brain tumours in a F98 glioblastoma rat model using a micro-irradiator. Contrast- enhanced MRI images were acquired to follow up tumour growth after orthotopic inoculation, to monitor treatment response, and to delineate the target volume during radiotherapy planning. Using multiple non-coplanar arcs the prescribed dose could be delivered to 90% of the target volume, while minimizing the dose to normal brain tissue. A challenging aspects of small animal CT imaging relates to the radiation dose received by the animals. This might become a very important issue when the therapeutic dose has to be delivered in multiple fractions spaced over time, where each individual irradiation requires a CT for accurate animal positioning. Therefore, in a second study we investigated the feasibility of a MRI-only based workflow for radiotherapy planning of the rat brain, that enables both accurate target delineation and accurate dose calculations using only MRI-based volumes. Multiple MRI sequences were used to generate synthetic CT images that could be used for dose calculations, because only one MRI volume was not sufficient to separate all major tissue types (air, soft tissue, bone) in the rat head. The synthetic CT images were sufficiently similar to the segmented CT images that are routinely used for radiotherapy planning on preclinical radiation research platforms. No significant differences were observed between CT and MRI based dose calculations when more complex beam configurations (multiple beams) were used in the dose plan. However, further research is required in the thoracic or abdominal region of small animals, where more tissue classes will be required to allow for accurate dose calculations compared to the rat head. Finally, discrimination between brain tumor recurrence (glioblastoma) and radiation necrosis (RN) remains a