Introduction: Effectiveness of radiation therapy can be improved through increased accuracy in radiotherapy calculations. The proposed research will focus on two types of cancer, prostate and lung. The proposed prostate cancer research is an extension of earlier work while the lung cancer research is a new area of interest. Background: Treatment for prostate cancer is successful in most cases. Although 1 in 8 men will be diagnosed with prostate cancer, only 1 in 34 will die from prostate cancer (American Cancer Society). Research proposed in Specific Aims 1 and 2 focuses on decreasing adverse radiation side-effects by increasing the understanding of dose distributions and side effects from Intensity Modulated Radiation therapy (IMRT) for prostate cancer. The goal of this project is to provide Radiation Oncologists the necessary information to select the most appropriate beam energy for individual patients. Lung cancer is the leading cause of cancer death in the United States, approximately 6 out of 10 people with lung cancer die within 1 year of being diagnosed (American Cancer Society). Improving the therapeutic gains in lung cancer is imperative.
Specific Aims 3 and 4 focus on improving the accuracy of dose calculations in lung cancer radiation therapy with the long term goal of understanding how much radiation dose is necessary to increase cure rates. ? ? Hypothesis: Increased accuracy in radiotherapy dose calculations can reduce adverse side effects from prostate cancer radiotherapy and can increase the therapeutic gain for lung cancer radiotherapy.
Specific Aims : The following research aims will be addressed: (1) Perform skin dose measurements to evaluate skin reactions for prostate cancer patients treated with 6MV beam energy for IMRT; (2) Perform Monte Carlo calculations (in phantom) of dose to peripheral organs from IMRT, expandable to individual patient calculations; three years of protected time to facilitate her transition to an established cancer researcher. Her research plan is based on her previous work in improving the quantification of dosage effects for intensity-modulated radiotherapy (IMRT). The previous submission was primarily critiqued for lack of a full breadth of training activities and for brevity of research methods including a lack of statistical analyses methods and justification. ? ? ?

Agency
National Institute of Health (NIH)
Institute
National Cancer Institute (NCI)
Type
Research Scientist Development Award - Research & Training (K01)
Project #
7K01CA125204-02
Application #
7575501
Study Section
Subcommittee G - Education (NCI)
Program Officer
Ojeifo, John O
Project Start
2007-09-24
Project End
2010-07-31
Budget Start
2008-03-01
Budget End
2008-07-31
Support Year
2
Fiscal Year
2007
Total Cost
$133,650
Indirect Cost
Name
University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center
Department
Radiation-Diagnostic/Oncology
Type
Other Domestic Higher Education
DUNS #
800772139
City
Houston
State
TX
Country
United States
Zip Code
77030
Scarboro, Sarah B; Followill, David S; Howell, Rebecca M et al. (2011) Variations in photon energy spectra of a 6 MV beam and their impact on TLD response. Med Phys 38:2619-28
Howell, Rebecca M; Scarboro, Sarah B; Taddei, Phillip J et al. (2010) Methodology for determining doses to in-field, out-of-field and partially in-field organs for late effects studies in photon radiotherapy. Phys Med Biol 55:7009-23
Taddei, Phillip J; Howell, Rebecca M; Krishnan, Sunil et al. (2010) Risk of second malignant neoplasm following proton versus intensity-modulated photon radiotherapies for hepatocellular carcinoma. Phys Med Biol 55:7055-65
Wang, Zhonglu; Howell, Rebecca M; Burgett, Eric A et al. (2010) Calibration of indium response functions in an Au-In-BSE system up to 800 MeV. Radiat Prot Dosimetry 139:565-73
Howell, Rebecca M; Scarboro, Sarah B; Kry, S F et al. (2010) Accuracy of out-of-field dose calculations by a commercial treatment planning system. Phys Med Biol 55:6999-7008
Howell, R M; Burgett, E A; Wiegel, B et al. (2010) Calibration of a Bonner sphere extension (BSE) for high-energy neutron spectrometry. Radiat Meas 45:1233-1237
Scarboro, Sarah B; Stovall, Marilyn; White, Allen et al. (2010) Effect of organ size and position on out-of-field dose distributions during radiation therapy. Phys Med Biol 55:7025-36
Howell, Rebecca M; Kry, Stephen F; Burgett, Eric et al. (2009) Secondary neutron spectra from modern Varian, Siemens, and Elekta linacs with multileaf collimators. Med Phys 36:4027-38
Kry, Stephen F; Howell, Rebecca M; Salehpour, Mohammad et al. (2009) Neutron spectra and dose equivalents calculated in tissue for high-energy radiation therapy. Med Phys 36:1244-50
Howell, Rebecca M; Kry, Stephen F; Burgett, Eric et al. (2009) Effects of tertiary MLC configuration on secondary neutron spectra from 18 MV x-ray beams for the Varian 21EX linear accelerator. Med Phys 36:4039-46