Fairfax, Va.- Calvary Mater Newcastle Hospital in Newcastle, Australia, has been awarded the Radiation Oncology Institute's (ROI's) first Research Award for Safety and Quality: IMRT Treatment Delivery Accuracy in the amount of $200,000 over two years for its proposed study titled "Ensuring Safe Delivery of IMRT Using EPID-Based Real-Time Verification." The study will be led by Peter Greer, PhD, MSc, a medical physicist and conjoint associate professor in the school of mathematical and physical sciences at the University of Newcastle.

Dr. Greer's study proposal outlines the development of a real-time verification system that enables detection of gross intensity modulated radiation therapy (IMRT) treatment delivery errors prior to delivery of substantial radiation to patients. Electronic portal imaging devices (EPIDs) are already installed on linear accelerators, and EPID image frames acquired during treatment will be compared in real-time to a predicted reference image set, utilizing both geometric and dosimetric verifications. Real-time verification while patients are receiving treatment allows for errors to be immediately detected and for the beam to be interrupted, thereby minimizing potential treatment errors. The study will bring together data from researchers in the IMRT treatment centers at
Calvary Mater Newcastle Hospital, CancerCare Manitoba Hospital, Virginia Commonwealth University Hospital and Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center. The University of Sydney will provide input into real-time analysis methods and strategies, and the project will assess the frequency, magnitude and types of errors, as well as the minimum dose-delivery required to detect and classify each error. The top-rated study proposal was reviewed by the ROI Research Committee and an expert panel review team and approved by the ROI Board of Trustees.


"This is an exciting opportunity for the ROI to further its mission of validating the safety and effectiveness of radiation therapy," said ROI
President Theodore Lawrence, MD, PhD, FASTRO. "We are hopeful that Dr. Greer's collaborative work with these leading institutions will foster continued progress and development of powerful new tools to advance the field of radiation oncology in our care of patients."

"Together with my colleagues at our partner institutions, I am excited by the potential for this study - it presents us with a highly innovative and efficient approach to monitoring IMRT delivery and to ensuring greater patient safety," said Dr. Greer.

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