1. Cosylab (Slovenia)
2. Centre de Lutte Contre Le Cancer Leon Berard (France)
3. Centro Nazionale di Adroterapia Oncologica (Italy)
Patient specific quality assurance (PSQA) is an essential part of the radiotherapy workflow for both particles and photons, aiming to validate the agreement between the planned and real dose distribution. This validation can be performed either by an empirical measurement of each individual treatment plan or by a recalculation of the relevant dose distribution with an independent software. Both approaches are currently well-established for a treatment in recumbent position. The adaptation to a treatment delivery in upright position is needed. Moreover, as the treatment and therefore positioning of the patient upright is a paradigm shift with very limited experience and with lack of clinical data on positioning accuracy, the PSQA program must be able to verify the positioning precision in all directions including a chair rotation.
The aim of the project is to develop a PSQA procedure for a verification of safe treatment plan delivery for a patient in upright position during photon and particle radiotherapy. Two strategies will be developed: one for both imaging for treatment planning and treatment delivery itself performed in upright position; second one for treatment planning imaging performed recumbent and treatment delivery upright. The developed PSQA will validate the accuracy of the coordinate transfer and dose delivery. The first essential step will be a systematic analysis of what needs to be validated and how, followed by a concept proposal and a definition of guidelines for PSQA based on measurements and independent dose calculation. Afterwards, a novel QA phantom will be designed enabling simultaneous evaluation of dosimetric and positioning accuracy. A potential outline of such a device is a chair-mounted rotational phantom with an integrated commercial detector, controlled by a user interface that will move the phantom and analyse the acquired data. The last step will consist of an adaptation of an open-source software for an independent dose calculation to enable recalculation of the treatment plans planned on the upright 3D imaging.
The work will be done in close collaboration with DC8 focusing on software developments.
My name is Chrysoula (Chrysa) Rousi, and I come from Athens, Greece. I studied Physics and did my master’s in Medical Physics-Radiation Physics, at National and Kapodistrian University of Athens (NKUA). Over the years, I’ve explored many hobbies but what I enjoy most is spending time with people and learning about their stories. I’m also deeply interested in psychology and, as a true dog person, I love being around animals.
I am a PhD student at Czech Technical University in Prague (CTU), where I’ll be working on the “Quality assurance workflow and dosimetry” for photon and proton upright radiotherapy. My mentor at the organisation is Dr. Petra Trnkova, who is guiding me through the technical and clinical aspects of this exciting field. This specific topic attracted me because it’s both challenging and rewarding. Existing QA workflows are well established, so my task is to reinterpret and adapt this knowledge from a new perspective.
I chose the Uplift Project because I truly enjoy being part of a group — I believe that collaboration and shared ideas can create real impact and lead to meaningful progress.
Through this project, I hope to contribute to improving treatment quality and safety. My personal motivation is to be part of a meaningful effort that enhances both medical practice and patient experience.
Additional:
OrcID: 0009-0000-7278-7621
