In the Division „Medical Physics in Radiation Oncology E040“ and the Clinical Cooperation Unit "Radiation Oncology E050“ patients are treated at a modern adaptive radiotherapy device. In a world first setup, a 3Tesla MRI imager is located next door allowing the use of MRI images within the treatment session. In this context research is especially focused on new methods for highly conformal radiotherapy techniques which account for inter- and intrafractional tumor and organ motion such as adaptive radiotherapy.
The work group “Physical Quality Assurance in Radiotherapy” (E0407) provides the medical physics experts and is responsible for the physical part of the radiotherapy routine and the implementation of new methods into clinical workflow.
Beyond the physical supervision and support of the radiotherapy our work is focused on the following main research activities:
- Development and optimization of methods for patient specific quality assurance of highly conformal and complex irradiation techniques.
- Development and optimization of linac and imaging specific quality assurance methods
- Investigation of dosimetric properties for point, 2D detectors and 3D reconstruction methods used in absolute and relative dosimetry.
- Evaluation of exit dose methods with and without the patient in place.
In this context several IMRT verification phantoms have been licensed during the last years. In cooperation with the staff unit “Radiation Protection and Dosimetry” at DKFZ the group is responsible for the legal approval process and reports based on the requirements of the German Radiation Protection Regulation and for the compliance with regulations of the German Radiation Protection Directive in Medicine and the Medical Devices Law in radiation therapy.
