Cystic fibrosis is a genetic disorder in which defects in the CFTR protein (arising from mutations in the CFTR gene) can cause life-threatening symptoms in multiple organs. In the respiratory system, cystic fibrosis dehydrates the airway and produces sticky mucus in the lungs, leading to breathing problems and increasing the risk of lung infections. One proposed treatment for cystic fibrosis is gene therapy, in which a viral vector delivers a healthy copy of the CFTR gene into airway cells to produce functional CFTR protein. To transport this vector to target cells and keep it there long enoug ..read more

The oncology information system (OIS) lies at the heart of all cancer care, managing the entire clinical pathway – from patient registration, to treatment scheduling and delivery, to follow-up. The software revolution has transformed cancer care from paper-based charts and records to today’s fully digitized processes. But an OIS can do so much more: it can collect data to analyse and learn from, automate tasks and data processing, and intuitively guide users to the information that they need. A case in point is RayCare, the OIS from oncology software specialist RaySearch Laboratories. RayCare ..read more

This episode of the Physics World Weekly podcast explores how the medical physics community is embracing environmental sustainability. Our guests are the medical physicists Rob Chuter of the Christie NHS Foundation Trust in the UK and Kari Tanderup of Aarhus University in Denmark. They chat with Physics World’s Tami Freeman about the environmental impact of healthcare provision – and how the community can reduce its carbon footprint without having negative impacts on health outcomes. This podcast was created in collaboration with IPEM, the Institute of Physics and Engineering in Medicine. IPE ..read more

The radiation oncology department at Kuopio University Hospital (KUH) in eastern Finland has, for more than a decade, been treating the overwhelming majority (>98%) of its cancer patients, across diverse disease indications, using a proven combination of volumetric modulated-arc therapy (VMAT) plus daily low-dose cone-beam CT for image guidance. Zoom in a little further and it’s evident that an innovative variation on the VMAT theme – known as tangential VMAT (tVMAT) – is similarly established as the go-to treatment modality for adjuvant breast radiotherapy at KUH. That reliance on tVMAT, w ..read more

Spectral phase-contrast tomography Three-dimensional rendering of a contrast-perfused mouse sample using three decomposition channels: water (soft tissues, blue), iodine (vasculature, red) and calcium (bones, white). (Courtesy: CC BY 4.0/Phys. Med. Biol. 10.1088/1361-6560/ad3328) The introduction of photon-counting detectors into CT scanners paved the way for the rise of spectral CT in clinical settings. Such systems employ two or more X-ray energies to create material-specific 3D maps. But since spectral CT is based on X-ray attenuation, it exhibits low contrast when imaging weakly absorbing ..read more

Mammography is a widely employed and effective tool for early detection of breast cancer, but dense breasts pose a significant challenge in cancer screening. Not only does dense breast tissue increase the risk of developing breast cancer, the high proportion of fibrous and glandular tissue can mask the presence of a tumour on a screening mammogram. As a result, supplemental breast imaging modalities are often advised for women with dense breasts. Such tests, breast MRI in particular, add significantly to the cost of cancer screening. This is especially problematic considering that about 40% of ..read more

Damage to the spinal cord, whether by injury or disease, can have devastating impacts on health, including loss of motor or sensory functions, or chronic back pain, which affects an estimated 540 million people at any given time. A US-based research team has now used functional ultrasound imaging (fUSI) to visualize the spinal cord and map its response to electrical stimulation in real time, an approach that could improve treatments of chronic back pain. Despite playing a central role in sensory, motor and autonomic functions, little is known about the functional architecture of the human spin ..read more

Join Maximilian Grohman in a detailed webinar on using RadCalc’s patient-specific quality assurance tools within a Varian-equipped radiotherapy department, focusing on their practical implementation for enhanced patient-specific pre-treatment and in vivo verification. Maximilian will also discuss the role of custom scripting (Python, C#) through the Eclipse Scripting API to optimize workflow efficiency and accuracy. It is essential for medical physicists and clinicians aiming to boost patient care through automation. Whether you’re looking to understand the technical integration or explore th ..read more

A new type of computer model that can reveal radiation damage at the cellular level could improve radiotherapy outcomes for lung cancer patients. Roman Bauer, a computational neuroscientist at the University of Surrey in the UK, in collaboration with Marco Durante and Nicolò Cogno from GSI Helmholtzzentrum für Schwerionenforschung in Germany, created the model, which simulates how radiation interacts with the lungs on a cell-by-cell basis. Over half of all patients with lung cancer are treated using radiotherapy. Although this approach is effective, it leaves up to 30% of recipients with radia ..read more

Intelligent software solutions have become a crucial tool for stretched clinical teams to provide the best possible care to cancer patients, particularly those that require more complex treatments using higher radiation doses. Software systems with built-in artificial intelligence can automate repetitive tasks, enhance the information that can be extracted from CT simulators, and ensure consistency of care across an increasing number of cases. At Castle Hill Hospital in Cottingham, UK, which treats several hundred patients every month with its six linear accelerators, intelligent software has ..read more