Scientists gathered in Aarhus for successful conference on advanced radiation dosimetry for verification of radiotherapy
20.06.24
The 13th edition of the International Conference IC3DDose was held at Aarhus University on 17-19 of June 2024. The conference gathered scientists from 17 countries across the globe, as far away as Brazil, Mexico, Australia and North America, for networking and knowledge sharing within 3D dosimetry.
The IC3DDose conference serves as a meeting point between scientists developing new dosimeter systems and readout methods and researchers with a clinical background and motivation. Participants also included new and more experienced researchers in the field as well as company representatives.
Before the three-day scientific programme started, the conference kicked off with a welcome reception at DCPT, where conference participants also were invited on a tour behind the scenes at the proton facility.
Conference highlights included an opening address on the history and future of 3D dosimetry, by Associate prof Sofie Ceberg (Lund, Sweden), twelve invited talks from renowned experts in the field and a closing debate moderated by Entrepreneurship advisor Emily Cloutier (Quebec, Canada) on how to optimally bring the scientific results into the radiotherapy clinics, for the benefit of patients. The conference dinner was held at the beautiful ARoS art museum in Aarhus.
Interdisciplinary collaboration on dosimetry attracted international conference to Aarhus
A compelling argument for Aarhus University to host the IC3DDose conference is the finalisation of the major interdisciplinary 3D Dosimetry project supported by the Novo Nordisk Foundation. In the project, led by AU professor Peter Balling and DCPT professor Ludvig Muren, medical physicists from Aarhus University Hospital and Danish Centre for Particle Therapy teamed up with optical/material physicists at Department of Physics and Astronomy, Aarhus University.
’We always find great joy in contributing to research on light–material interactions: designing new materials with desired properties and developing new optical readout methods. However, it clearly adds extra motivation to the entire research group when the results of our more fundamental investigations are motivated by and readily transferred to medical applications’, explains Peter Balling.
The overall goal of the collaborative project was to develop materials and methods for optically based readout of 3D dose distributions in high resolution, to investigate the potential of the new dosimeters, and bring them closer toward implementation in clinical workflow.
The final results of the 3D Dosimetry project in Aarhus were presented at the IC3DDose conference, including both innovative methodological studies as well as exciting clinical applications, also for verification of proton therapy, performed at our Danish Centre for Particle Therapy.
‘It was a great pleasure to see all the work done in this highly dynamic field coming together at this very successful gathering of international scientists here in Aarhus. With this conference, we brought together scientists in the more established chemically based 3D dosimeters, with scientists developing novel approaches based on physical processes such as scintillation and luminescence. Several of the developments presented at the conference have potential to become useful for the treatment verification of future cancer patients, including at our proton centre’, says Ludvig Muren.