Recently, the 17th China Annual Conference on Medical Physics was held as scheduled in the "hero city" Wuhan, bringing together outstanding physicists in the field of tumor radiotherapy in China. This meeting coincided with the 40th anniversary of the establishment of the association. Fu Chunpeng, a physicist at the Department of Radiotherapy of Beijing Huaxin Hospital (The First Affiliated Hospital of Tsinghua University), attended this event. He gained a lot and had many feelings. Here are his thoughts:
Radiotherapy plays a very important role in the treatment of tumors. According to statistics, about 70% of cancer patients require radiotherapy at some stage of the disease. The process of radiotherapy is roughly divided into: ① doctors receive patients and determine indications for radiotherapy; ② patient positioning; ③ outline the target area; ④ plan design; ⑤ plan review; ⑥ plan verification; ⑦ plan execution. The physicist is mainly responsible for the plan design and plan verification part, as well as the quality assurance and quality control of the machine. After the doctor draws the target area and the organs at risk (surrounding normal organs), he gives the prescribed dose and the limit of the organs at risk. The physicist is the important executor of how to use the accelerator to convert the physical plan into the biological effect of tumor treatment. .
The design of a treatment plan is a complex process. When rays are irradiated to the tumor, they will inevitably cause damage to the surrounding normal tissues. The physicist needs to find a reasonable method of field deployment so that the rays can reach the prescribed dose of the tumor while minimizing the radiation dose. For irradiation of normal tissues, the priority order of protection should be clearly defined based on the importance of the organs at risk. At the same time, regarding the prescribed dose, we communicate closely with doctors and repeatedly modify the plan until it is reviewed and approved by the doctor, and then verified by the plan verification system, and then the plan is sent to the accelerator treatment patient.
Physical plan of brain metastasis cancer
In addition, due to the high precision and complexity of the accelerator, the quality control of the machine is also very important. The mechanical parameters and dose characteristics of the machine will directly affect the accuracy and effect of radiotherapy. To this end, physicists and technicians need to conduct strict daily, weekly, monthly and annual inspections on the accelerator. It can be seen from this that the physicist is a job that highly integrates medicine and engineering, and is an important bridge for doctors to use radiation to treat tumor patients.
As a physicist in the radiotherapy department, I really like this profession. Although we are working behind the scenes, I feel happy and proud from the bottom of my heart when I see tumor patients benefiting from radiotherapy. The physics knowledge I have learned can Treating diseases and saving people, I feel that my mission is glorious! Professor Zhang Fuquan, director of the Department of Radiotherapy of Peking Union Medical College Hospital, once said at the 6th Union Medical College Cancer Forum: "With the development of technology now, tumor radiotherapy cannot be separated from physicists for a day. If the hospital does not have good physicists, the development of radiotherapy in the hospital will be difficult." will be restricted. "Fortunately, the radiotherapy department of our hospital attaches great importance to physical work and the training of physicists. Through full communication with doctors, I constantly improve my understanding of the disease and physical work, and repeatedly modify the target area. I feel my own importance in the satisfied smile after the doctor's review.
Fu Chunpeng is formulating a treatment plan
Zhang Ruiping, deputy director of the Department of Radiotherapy, often encourages me that the work of a physicist is uniquely charming. Therefore, I am willing to work quietly behind the scenes, use my efforts and sweat to transform doctors’ hopes into the effects of tumor treatment, and continuously promote the advancement of radiotherapy technology in our hospital.
This is him - a hero behind the scenes of tumor radiation therapy, a radiation therapy physicist!
Author: Department of Radiotherapy Fu Chunpeng
Photography: Department of Radiotherapy
