Clinical Research Cooperation "Medical Physics"

Over many years, we have established a very close and successful cooperation between our division at the DKFZ and the Department of Radiation Oncology and Radiotherapy (Head: Prof. Debus) of the University Clinic in Heidelberg. One way of realizing this translational cooperation is the Clinical Cooperation Unit Radiation Oncology (Head: Prof. Debus) at the DKFZ, where physicians from the radiotherapy department of the university clinic do clinical work at the linac at DKFZ. This clinical work is supported by a group of medical physics experts in our division. Many of the modern technologies in radiotherapy, such as stereotactic radiosurgery, fractionated 3D-conformal radiotherapy, intensity-modulated radiotherapy (IMRT) and heavy charged particle radiotherapy, have been developed in our division and translated into clinical application together with the Clinical Cooperation Unit Radiation Oncology at the DKFZ. After establishing the new treatment techniques and proving their safety and feasibility, they have then been transferred to the radiotherapy department of the clinic as a routinely applied treatment technique.

To further improve the cooperation between the DKFZ and the University Clinic in the field of Radiation Oncology, the Research Group Applied Medical Radiation Physics (Head: Prof. Karger) was established in our division. Within this research group the translational research activities in our division are bundled and supported. 

The Clinical Research Cooperation “Medical Physics” includes the research activities of the Medical Physicists of the University Clinic and those of selected working groups and some additional members of our division at the DKFZ (fig. 2).