Background

In radiotherapy, to goal is to deliver a high dose of ionizing radiation to the tumor, while minimizing the dose to nearby healthy tissue. High geometrical treatment accuracy is therefore crucial. However, anatomical changes - of different orders of magnitude and over different time scales - can occur throughout the patient’s body. Some examples are motion caused through patient breathing, cardiac motion, bowel movement or bladder filling, but also tumor progression or regression. Clear visualization of the internal anatomy of the patient right before and during treatment is therefore of substantial interest.
The MR LINAC combines an external beam radiotherapy system with an on-board magnetic resonance imaging device. The latter enables excellent soft-tissue visualization, without any additional radiation dose to the patient. Both real-time 2D images as well as sparse 3D images at high resolution are possible. At the radiotherapy department of Institut Jules Bordet, such an MR LINAC is currently being implemented in the clinic, and will be only the second MR LINAC in clinical use in Belgium

Goals

The purpose of this work is to perform an extensive evaluation of all data generated during the treatment of the first X patients treated on the newly installed MR LINAC. This data will consist of medical images, motion data, clinical data, treatment workflow parameters, radiotherapy treatment plans, … etc. The aim of this analysis is two-fold; (1) to validate and possibly optimize the clinical workflow and patient treatments and (2) to generate hypothesis for future research projects.

Prerequisites

Strong interest in modern data science and programming is a must.
Previous experience with programming in any language is a plus but is not required.

Supervisor

Dr. Ir. Jennifer Dhont
Contact: Jennifer.dhont@bordet.be, olivier.debeir@ulb.be, nicolas.pauly@ulb.be