Institute of Physics and Engineering in Medicine welcomes the launch of the Year of Radiotherapy 2011

IPEM Press Release

The Institute of Physics and Engineering in Medicine (IPEM) welcomes the launch of the Year of Radiotherapy 2011 to raise public awareness of the benefits of radiotherapy for the treatment of cancer.

Radiotherapy is a good example of the beneficial and often unpredictable spin-offs of fundamental physics research and the investment that underpins it. Without investment in nuclear and particle physics in the twentieth century, we would not have radiotherapy treatments today.

Radiotherapy plays a significant part in the treatment of 40% of patients who are cured of cancer. Radiotherapy is more targeted than chemotherapy, less invasive than surgery, and is the most cost effective method of treating cancer. Timely access should further improve outcomes and survival.

Highly qualified Medical Physics staff continue to play vital roles in the radiotherapy workforce. They plan radiotherapy treatments for individual patients, ensuring that cancerous tumours receive the prescribed amount of radiation, and that the risk of harm to other organs is minimised. They ensure that multimillion pound items of radiotherapy equipment are selected, commissioned, maintained and that they deliver the correct amount of radiation for each treatment. They provide advice and guidance to all hospital staff on the safe use of radiation. Computer scientists working in radiotherapy physics ensure that IT systems are in place to support treatment planning and to verify that the complex treatment machine set-ups required for modern radiotherapy match the patient prescription. They also advise on the use of images from different imaging techniques (e.g. CT and MRI) for accurate treatment planning.

Radiotherapy is developing rapidly, and there is a continuing need to optimise treatment and so improve outcomes. Medical Physicists bring together knowledge of radiation physics, understanding of radiotherapy technology, and expertise in the interaction of radiation with the human body so they are able to ensure that new developments are implemented safely in clinical practice.

The Year of Radiotherapy is an initiative by Cancer Research UK (CRUK) and the National Radiotherapy Implementation Group (NRIG) and was launched at a press conference on 27th January at the Science Media Centre in London.

For more information visit http://www.rcr.ac.uk/content.aspx?PageID=1898