The Instituto de Física Corpuscular (IFIC, CSIC-UV) participates in the International European Training Network (ITN) OMA (Optimization of Medical Accelerators). The OMA project joins 30 institutions from all across Europe and will be coordinated by the Cockcroft Institute in the UK during its 4-year duration. The consortium has been awarded almost 4 M€ by the European Commission to train 15 Early Stage Researchers and carry out a cutting edge R&D program into treatment facility design, numerical simulations for the development of advanced therapies, and novel imaging techniques. The training at IFIC is linked to IFIMED, the new facility for research in Medical Imaging and Accelerators built at Parque Científico of the University of Valencia.

The project is currently recruiting for its Fellowship positions that will be based at institutions across Europe, including IFIC. Outstanding researchers from around the world are invited to submit their application by 28^th, February 2016. IFIC participates through Accelerators Physics Group, led by CSIC researcher Ángeles Faus-Golfe. Within this network, IFIC is working in the application of High Gradient Radio Frequency (RF) technology for hadron therapy accelerators.

Hadron therapy or particle therapy uses heavy particles such as protons accelerated at Large Hadron Collider (LHC) to irradiate cancer. Unlike conventional radiotherapy with photons, hadron therapy gets the heavy particles to release most of their energy at the tumor, reducing damage to healthy tissues.

“The field of particle therapy has steadily developed over the last 6 decades, first in physics laboratories, and starting in the late 90’s in dedicated clinical installations. By March 2013 about 110,000 people had received treatment with particle beams, the vast majority having been treated with protons and around 15,000 patients with heavier ions such as helium, carbon, neon, and argon”, said Prof. Carsten P. Welsch, Head of the Liverpool Accelerator Physics Group, initiated and will coordinate the network.

IFIC studies the application of RF technology developed for accelerators such as the LHC to medical linear accelerator (linacs) for hadrontherapy. The main goal is to varying beam energy and intensity during the 2.5-10 ms separating two consecutive pulses, hence allowing to ‘multi paint’ a tumor while using a 3D feedback system to deliver the dose to a moving organ by applying a spot scanning technique.

In this project, the Fellow associated at IFIC will collaborate in the design, construction and power test of two novel high-power prototype 3 GHz accelerating structures at 76 MeV (low energy) and 213 MeV (high energy) which corresponds to the to the lowest and highest energy of commonly used proton linacs. These accelerating structures are being built at CERN to prove the principle of high gradient acceleration of low energy protons required for hadron therapy.

The design and test of the two intermediate proton linac structures in the high-gradient RF test stand at IFIC-IFIMED labs of the University of Valencia will complement this work. It will include simulation of the most realistic conditions and running operation conditions for this kind of accelerator structure in collaboration with the Universities of Manchester and Liverpool.

OMA will push the limits in treatment facility design, imaging techniques and treatment optimization through advanced numerical studies. A network of European universities, research centers, clinical facilities and industry partners with outstanding expertise in this area will jointly develop advanced schemes to assure the best possible cancer care for patients.

Competition for receiving such funding is extremely high with average success rates of the order of only 5%. Moreover, OMA is the first and only EU network that has ever received a final evaluation mark of 100%, amongst thousands of proposals that have been submitted to date. 

More information:

http://www.oma-project.eu/

Applications for training at IFIC Valencia to Ángeles Faus-Golfe, CSIC researcher at IFIC.