- Email: [email protected]
SP-0411: ESTRO educational grants and mobility grants
S217 ESTRO 36 _______________________________________________________________________________________________ Radiotherapy in deep inspiration breath hold (DIBH) has been successfully applied in breast cancer patients and recently also for mediastinal lymphoma, exploring the benefit of inflated lungs and changed position of the heart. Patients with lung cancer may benefit dosimetrically of these anatomical changes as well. In addition, DIBH mitigates lung tumour motion. However, DIBH has not yet gained wide implementation in this patient group. In this talk, some of the most widely applied techniques for DIBH will be presented, together with addressing the DIBH compliance of lung cancer patients. Intra- and interfractional reproducibility of tumour position and the differential motion of the lymph nodes relative to the peripheral tumour has to be evaluated for DIBH radiotherapy as well, since these uncertainties have impact on planning target volume (PTV) margins in photon radiotherapy and robustness of the proton therapy. In radiotherapy of patients with locally advanced lung cancer, the relatively high doses delivered to the healthy tissue, result in treatment related toxicity. DIBH offers a potential to reduce irradiation of the heart structures, the lungs and the oesophagus, potentially improving toxicity risks. When treating in DIBH, image guidance has to be performed in DIBH as well. The optimal modalities will be discussed, with their impact on treatment uncertainties. Radiotherapy for early stage lung cancer is delivered with stereotactic body radiotherapy (SBRT, or SABR). In this patient group motion mitigation is a bigger challenge than toxicity risks. Very small mobile tumours may not be visualised on cone beam C T (CBCT), used for radiotherapy image guidance and hence SBRT cannot be delivered safely. With improved image quality in DIBH, small tumours can be visualised on daily CBCTs and safe and fast treatment can be delivered within 3-4 DIBHs of 20 seconds duration with flattening filter free beam. Symposium: Education and research grants SP-0410 ERC grants - how to succeed M. Vooijs1 1 MAASTRO GROW School for Oncology, Radiation Oncology, Maastricht, The Netherlands The mission of the European Research Council (ERC) is to encourage the highest quality research in Europe through competitive funding and to support investigator-driven frontier research across all fields, on the basis of scientific excellence. ERC grants fund basic science and technology of intrinsically risky projects, progressing in new and the most exiting research areas and characterised by the absence of disciplinary boundaries. In this interactive lecture I will discuss my experiences with obtaining ERC grants. If you are attending and interested in writing an ERC grant I encourage you to send me your questions / experiences by email in advance: [email protected] SP-0411 ESTRO educational grants and mobility grants M.C. Vozenin1 1 Centre Hospitalier Universitaire Vaudois, Department of Radiation Oncology, Lausanne Vaud, Switzerland ESTRO educational grants and mobility grants will be presented in detail along with specific advices and presentation of the required format that will enable you to submit a successful application.
SP-0412 ESTRO educational grant - if you don't try, you won't win M. Spalek1 1 The Maria Sklodowska-Curie Memorial Cancer Center, Radiotherapy, Warsaw, Poland Young and confused. A first year radiation oncology resident - a totally new field of knowledge, new people, demanding tasks and high expectations. I was trying to find a good source of knowledge, contacts and possibilities for an ambitious physician. Then I discovered ESTRO and the section of ESTRO School courses. The offer looked excellent, but the fee and costs of travel with accommodation were unbearable without financial support. 'GRANTS & FELLOWSHIP' tab was promising. And finally - educational grant for young radiation oncology professionals. I thought that I will try - why not? I did not expect that I will be chosen (a newbie without a strong scientific background) and... I was wrong. I awarded the grant. Evidence-based Radiation Oncology in Varna, Bulgaria - that was my choice. During my presentation I will tell a story of my application, try to find possible reasons of the success, tell some practical information about realization, present useful tips and sum up the whole adventure with ESTRO educational grant. SP-0413 ESTRO mobility grant - establishing intravital brain imaging in preclinical models J. Birch1, L. Gilmore1, A. Chalmers1 1 Institute of Cancer Sciences, Translational Radiation Biology, Glasgow, United Kingdom Glioblastoma (GBM) is an aggressive form of primary adult brain tumour that typically has a very poor clinical outcome and a very high rate of disease recurrence. The high recurrence rates are thought to be due in part to the invasive nature of glioblastoma cells, which allows them to infiltrate the healthy brain tissue surrounding the tumour mass and thereby preventing complete surgical resection and limiting the radiation dose that can be safely delivered to the target volume. Our lab is studying the mechanisms by which glioblastoma (GBM) cells are able to invade normal brain tissue and testing the efficacy of putative anti-invasive agents on these processes. However, modelling GBM invasion using in vitro approaches is both challenging and limited: it is impossible to recapitulate the complex 3-dimensional structure of the brain in an in vitro setting. In order to address this issue we wanted to use an in vivo approach, combined with intravital imaging of the brain, to complement and strengthen in vitro observations. This approach involves the establishment of patient-derived xenograft tumours in the brains of immuno-compromised mice via intracranial injection of fluorescently labelled primary human glioblastoma cell lines. An intracranial window is then created which allows real time imaging of glioblastoma tumour cells in situ using multiphoton microscopy. In order to establish this complex technique in our lab, we arranged to visit an expert in this field, Dr. Frank Winkler, whose lab routinely use brain intravital imaging of GBM. The primary objective of the visit was for the acquisition and optimization of the necessary skills to establish high quality intravital imaging of the brain at our own institute. We were also interested in establishing valuable communication links with a laboratory that is active and expert in this field that might have the potential to lead to collaborations in the future. During our visit we observed in detail the surgical techniques that are required to inject glioblastoma tumour cells into the brain and create the intracranial windows necessary to allow intravital imaging. The setting up of this technique is a challenging and involved procedure and this opportunity to witness it first hand was extremely valuable. We were able to gauge the timescale
SP-0412 ESTRO educational grant - if you don't try, you won't win M. Spalek1 1 The Maria Sklodowska-Curie Memorial Cancer Center, Radiotherapy, Warsaw, Poland Young and confused. A first year radiation oncology resident - a totally new field of knowledge, new people, demanding tasks and high expectations. I was trying to find a good source of knowledge, contacts and possibilities for an ambitious physician. Then I discovered ESTRO and the section of ESTRO School courses. The offer looked excellent, but the fee and costs of travel with accommodation were unbearable without financial support. 'GRANTS & FELLOWSHIP' tab was promising. And finally - educational grant for young radiation oncology professionals. I thought that I will try - why not? I did not expect that I will be chosen (a newbie without a strong scientific background) and... I was wrong. I awarded the grant. Evidence-based Radiation Oncology in Varna, Bulgaria - that was my choice. During my presentation I will tell a story of my application, try to find possible reasons of the success, tell some practical information about realization, present useful tips and sum up the whole adventure with ESTRO educational grant. SP-0413 ESTRO mobility grant - establishing intravital brain imaging in preclinical models J. Birch1, L. Gilmore1, A. Chalmers1 1 Institute of Cancer Sciences, Translational Radiation Biology, Glasgow, United Kingdom Glioblastoma (GBM) is an aggressive form of primary adult brain tumour that typically has a very poor clinical outcome and a very high rate of disease recurrence. The high recurrence rates are thought to be due in part to the invasive nature of glioblastoma cells, which allows them to infiltrate the healthy brain tissue surrounding the tumour mass and thereby preventing complete surgical resection and limiting the radiation dose that can be safely delivered to the target volume. Our lab is studying the mechanisms by which glioblastoma (GBM) cells are able to invade normal brain tissue and testing the efficacy of putative anti-invasive agents on these processes. However, modelling GBM invasion using in vitro approaches is both challenging and limited: it is impossible to recapitulate the complex 3-dimensional structure of the brain in an in vitro setting. In order to address this issue we wanted to use an in vivo approach, combined with intravital imaging of the brain, to complement and strengthen in vitro observations. This approach involves the establishment of patient-derived xenograft tumours in the brains of immuno-compromised mice via intracranial injection of fluorescently labelled primary human glioblastoma cell lines. An intracranial window is then created which allows real time imaging of glioblastoma tumour cells in situ using multiphoton microscopy. In order to establish this complex technique in our lab, we arranged to visit an expert in this field, Dr. Frank Winkler, whose lab routinely use brain intravital imaging of GBM. The primary objective of the visit was for the acquisition and optimization of the necessary skills to establish high quality intravital imaging of the brain at our own institute. We were also interested in establishing valuable communication links with a laboratory that is active and expert in this field that might have the potential to lead to collaborations in the future. During our visit we observed in detail the surgical techniques that are required to inject glioblastoma tumour cells into the brain and create the intracranial windows necessary to allow intravital imaging. The setting up of this technique is a challenging and involved procedure and this opportunity to witness it first hand was extremely valuable. We were able to gauge the timescale