Course info

About this course

The objectives of "Treatment Planning" course include the development of students’ knowledge and ideas of modern methods, algorithms and procedures used for calculation/simulation of the radiation dose distribution in patients during radiation therapy (RT). The course also deals with clinical aspects of RT, which include pretreatment procedures based on CT, MRI images, importance and use of immobilization devices, prescription for RT course, dosimetric treatment planning, certain aspect of treatment procedures themselves, Quality Assurance (QA) of radiotherapy equipment and individual treatment plans. The clinical aspects are given for the major malignancies which medical physicists will deal during their career. Students will learn to find the solution of research and applied problems connected with radiotherapy and dosimetric equipment.
Special attention is given to practical skills of the application of methods of calculation of dose distribution in the patient's body generated by various sources ionizing radiation and dose delivery techniques; principles of control levels calculating for tumour and damage to healthy tissues and organs at risk; to QA aspects of radiotherapy equipment and individual treatment plans.

Upon completion of the course, a graduate will obtain the knowledge of:

-   physical and radiobiological basics of the radiotherapy and the treatment planning, which include algorithms, treatment planning principles, calculation and simulation of the dose distribution, QA procedures;
-   main documents of the radiotherapy departments that deals with the treatment planning;
-   main international protocols of the treatment planning procedures and different aspects;
-   main recommendation of national and international standards and protocols with respect to the equipment of radiotherapy departments.

Upon completion of the course, graduates are expected to develop the following skills:

-   to analyze and compare international protocols of the treatment planning, QA, and treatment procedures;
-   to use special software for the treatment planning – treatment planning systems;
-   to develop the treatment plan for the particular patient following the treatment prescription;
-   to apply different dosage delivery techniques during dosimetric treatment planning in order to obtain safe irradiation via external and internal irradiation;
-   to calculate irradiation fractionation regimens, allowing maximum control probability of tumor growth and minimal probability of complications for organs at risk;
-   to develop independent research skills aimed at improving methods for calculating dose distributions in radiotherapy and ensuring the quality of radiotherapy.

Upon completion of the course, graduates should acquire the practical experience in:

-   comparison and analysis of the international protocol of the of the treatment planning, QA, and treatment procedures;
-   calculating the dose distribution in patient's body from various sources of ionizing radiation, the principles of fixing and immobilizing the patient on the therapeutic table, the principles of calculating the level of control over the tumor and damage to healthy tissues, as well as reading tomographic images;
-   development the treatment plan for the particular patient following the treatment prescription;
-   analysis and QA of the developed treatment plans;
-   use of different treatment planning systems.

Master's degree program

Field of Study: 14.04.02 Nuclear Physics and Technology

Programme name: Nuclear Science and Technology

Specialization: Nuclear medicine (medical physics)

The content of the course covers 5 topics. Each topic is studied through lectures and practical experiences. 

Section 1. Introduction (Pretreatment procedures and Radiobiology in radiotherapy)

Treatment planning of radiotherapy include performing several sequential procedures: pretreatment procedure based on CT/MR/PET scanner with immobilization devices, prescription for RT course (radiobiology calculation), dosimetric planning, Quality Assurance (QA) of radiotherapy equipment and individual treatment plans, performing of treatment.

Special attention in this section is given to clinical application of various medical imaging devices (such as X-ray equipment, CT, MRI, ultrasound, PET) and different type of immobilization devices that are routinely used in pretreatment procedures of radiation therapy. This section also includes basic radiobiological models and calculation of different radiotherapy courses in order to control the tumor and damage to normal tissues. The international radiobiological protocols (QUANTEC, RTOG) for tolerant levels of critical organs are additionally introduced.

Section 2. Dosimetric treatment planning

Students will learn main algorithms for the calculation of dose distributions in tissue-equivalent medium (pencil beam method for electron beams, the Monte Carlo methods) for conventional RT, 3D conformal radiation therapy (3DCRT), electron RT, modern treatment techniques such as intensity-modulated radiotherapy (IMRT\VMAT) for stereotactic radiotherapy and radiosurgery (SBRT/SRS). For the treatment plan evaluation students will learn international protocols (ICRU 38, ICRU 50, ICRU 58, ICRU 62, ICRU 71, ICRU 83).

Section 3. Special Technique for Radiotherapy. Set-up of patient

This section is focused on use of special techniques and set-up of patients for radiation therapy such as total body irradiation (TBI), stereotactic radiotherapy and radiosurgery (SBRT/SRS) with image-guided radiotherapy (IGRT) based on MV and kV X-ray images and MR images, proton RT, neutron RT, intro-operative RT (IORT).

Section 4. Brachytherapy

This section is focused on the fundamental concepts of Brachytherapy physics and dosimetry. Lectures cover the history and evolution of Brachytherapy, terminology, units, radiobiological basics, current clinical practices and protocols, AAPM Task Group 43 and ESTRO (booklet №10) recommendations, regulatory and radiation control issues, and modern high dose-rate facility design.  

Section 5. Quality Assurance of radiotherapy and individual plans

This section gives students knowledge about those significant guidance documents which are used in the field of Medical Physics (AAPM task group reports and IAEA documents) for Quality Assurance of radiotherapy and dosimetry equipment (AAPM task group 142, TRS 430) and individual plans (AAPM task group 119, AAPM task group 228, ESTRO booklet 9). 

Course duration – 18 weeks
Total Hours – 216
Course workload – 6 credits
Form of control – credit test

Sukhikh Evgeniia Sergeevna, Associated Professor, Research and Training Centre for International Nuclear Education and Career, School of Nuclear Science & Engineering, TPU, email: e.s.sukhikh@gmail.com, evgeniiassukhikh@tpu.ru, +7 (3822) 701-777 ext. 5216
Selikhova Ekaterina Alexandrovna, Engineer, Center for Ionizing Radiation in Medicine TPU, email:  eas76@tpu.ru, +7 (3822) 701-777 ext.5216; Sutygina Yana Nikolaevna, medical physicist, Tomsk Regional Oncology Center, email: yana.sutygina@mail.ru; Stakhova Olga Mikhailovna, Medical Physicist, Medical City Medical Center, email: oms5@tpu.ru; Sagov Islam Ruslanovich, expert physicist, Medical City Medical Center, email: irs10@tpu.ru