Liheng Tian finishes his PhD

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OMA Fellow Liheng Tian passed successfully his PhD defense on 27th July at the Physics Faculty of Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität (LMU) in Munich, Germany. His project was funded by OMA and LMU and was carried out at the Department of Experimental Physics – Medical Physics at the host University LMU, benefiting from an internship and collaboration with IBA.

Liheng Tian and Prof Rädler

Liheng and Prof Rädler.

The title of his thesis was ’A new treatment planning concept accounting for prompt gamma imaging for proton range verification’. The performance of proton therapy is highly affected by the proton range uncertainties caused by e.g. anatomical changes and patient positioning. The thesis focuses on the integration and optimal exploitation of the novel proton range verification technique of prompt gamma imaging in a Monte Carlo-based treatment planning platform for proton therapy. In this Monte Carlo simulation work, a method was proposed to identify the reliabilities of the pencil beams used in the treatment in terms of prompt gamma imaging at the stage of treatment planning. Pencil beams selected by this method were then boosted to create a more PG-monitoring friendly treatment plan, as verified both at the emission and the detection level with a realistic model of a prompt gamma knife edge slit camera.

With the results of Liheng’s thesis, proton range verification method is taken into account in a Monte Carlo-based proton treatment plan for the first time, potentially contributing to a future reduction of proton range uncertainties. The work has been published in three peer reviewed articles in Physics in Medicine and Biology:

Accounting for prompt gamma emission and detection for range verification in proton therapy treatment planning.

Liheng Tian, Ze Huang, Guillaume Janssens, Guillaume Landry, George Dedes, Florian Kamp, Claus Belka, Marco Pinto, Katia Parodi, Phys Med Biol 66(5), 055005 (2021).
https://doi.org/10.1088/1361-6560/abc939

A new treatment planning approach accounting for prompt gamma range verification and interfractional anatomical changes.

L. Tian, G. Landry, G. Dedes, M. Pinto, F. Kamp, C. Belka, K. Parodi, Phys Med Biol 65(9), 095005 (2020)
https://doi.org/10.1088/1361-6560/ab7d15

Toward a new treatment planning approach accounting for in vivo proton range verification.

L. Tian, G. Landry, G. Dedes, F. Kamp, M. Pinto, K. Niepel, C. Belka, K. Parodi, Phys Med Biol 63(21), 215025 (2018).
https://doi.org/10.1088/1361-6560/aae749