1. Centre de Lutte Contre Le Cancer Leon Berard (France)
2. Centro Nazionale di Adroterapia Oncologica (Italy)
3. IBA
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 am a junior researcher at the Czech Technical University in Prague (CTU), working under the supervision of Dr Petra Trnkova. I am originally from Athens, Greece, and my academic background is in Physics and Medical Physics – Radiation Physics, with both degrees obtained at the National and Kapodistrian University of Athens (NKUA). I am a certified medical physicist in Greece. My previous professional experience as an application specialist in radiotherapy provided valuable clinical insight and has strongly influenced both my perspective on the field and my current research interests.
For my project, I am working on quality assurance workflows and dosimetry for both proton and photon upright radiotherapies. This topic particularly attracted me because it is both challenging and rewarding. Existing QA workflows are well established; therefore, my task is to reinterpret and adapt this knowledge from a new perspective. My work focuses on dosimetric and mechanical quality assurance, as well as patient-specific quality assurance (PSQA) for treatment delivery in the upright position — a paradigm shift that requires new validation strategies.
I chose the Uplift Project because I genuinely enjoy being part of a team and believe that collaboration and the exchange of ideas can create real impact and 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.
Outside of my professional work, I have explored many hobbies over the years. Among these, the experiences I will never forget are being part of my university’s theatre team and participating in an independent film project. I believe this is because I deeply enjoy learning from other people’s stories and perspectives. I am also deeply interested in psychology and as a dog person, I love being around animals.
