Major Interest in Landmark Upright Radiotherapy Research Summit

Leading specialists are set to exchange ideas in a landmark scientific meeting to discuss latest advances in the evolving field of upright radiotherapy and imaging.

Key areas of focus will be on cancers of the breast, prostate, liver,  lung,  head and neck and how imaging and treating patients with these conditions in an upright, rather than supine position, can potentially bring multiple benefits.

The in-person event in Vienna on May 12, 2023 has attracted a number of expert speakers in the field of upright radiotherapy and also aroused considerable interest in wider radiology and patient immobilisation circles with several well-known figures registering as delegates to learn more about upright cancer care.

Contribute and Collaborate

During the event, delegates will hear about the work being conducted at Centre Léon Bérard in Lyon, France by Radiation Therapist, Dr Sophie Boisbouvier and Professor Vincent Gregoire on their research on patient positioning, stability and motion.

The diverse scientific programme will also include presentations on topics such as; the patient perspective on upright treatments; beam angle considerations and soft robotics; upright treatment planning; and image registration.

Upright Position

Professor Gregoire from Centre Léon Bérard in Lyon, France will deliver an opening statement to delegates gathered at the Impact Hub in Vienna for the event.

Speaking ahead of the consortium meeting, he said

“he will begin by making a point about anthropology and living beings that naturally evolved from walking on four legs, to moving on two legs in the upright position. There are positive elements from moving from a supine to a standing position; we somehow have a larger view of the world than animals close to the ground.”

Pointing to how CT, MRI and ultrasound exams, or surgery, are still conducted on patients lying down, he continued:

“When we look at the different physiology between supine and upright, we see a lot of differences.”

Degrees of Freedom

Referring to the work at Centre Léon Bérard, which will be discussed by other speakers, he pointed to organs moving into different positions after a patient lies down, which is likely to impact the delivery of radiation to the target organ(s).

He said there is increasing evidence to ‘suggest treatment in an upright position gives more degrees of freedom to try to spare normal tissues’ from radiation.

Highlighting the importance of the meeting, he said it will stimulate interaction, see ideas and knowledge exchanged on upright radiotherapy, with challenges to data and objective feedback delivered from other experts in the field.

“People will share their experiences, and by doing that we will build up data in favour of the upright position compared to supine position,” said Professor Gregoire.

Open Discussion

Hosting the event is Dr Tracy Underwood, senior physicist with Leo Cancer Care and an honorary senior research fellow at University College London.

She said:

“Upright radiotherapy is a field full of scientific opportunities. Internationally, we are still a small group of researchers, but we are a warm and dynamic community. We hope that this meeting will encourage participants to think about how their research can fit together and how they can collaborate. ”

The final session of the event will take the form of an open discussion to see how the different elements of research - and the work researchers are conducting at different centres - can fit together to advance the field of upright radiotherapy.

 Academic and Clinical Forum

The upright radiotherapy and imaging research consortium was established by Leo Cancer Care to bring together academic and clinical groups working on relevant research, encouraging them to share ideas, data and expertise and make research on upright imaging and radiotherapy more efficient.

While there have been a number of virtual meetings, the May 12 meeting is significant as the first in-person session with delegates and speakers in the same venue together.

The first in-person Upright Radiotherapy Research Consortium agenda can be viewed above. Please see the button at the bottom of this article to register.