Commercial partner: Teledyne e2v (Teledyne UK Limited)
Over 25% of cancer patients in the UK receive radiotherapy, often delivered in multiple fractions over several weeks. This project seeks to improve radiotherapy treatment options through novel dose delivery, culminating in photon FLASH radiotherapy. This would reduce the number of radiotherapy fractions required and could improve patient outcomes and quality of life. The university of Oxford and Teledyne e2v will collaborate on this project. Teledyne e2v has products in more than 98% of linear accelerator-based radiotherapy machines globally.
FLASH radiotherapy is an innovative radiotherapy delivery methodology using ultra-high dose rates. Recent global research has indicated that FLASH can reduce radiation induced damage in healthy tissues with unchanged anti-tumour effect. In addition, the number of treatment fractions can be substantially reduced and, with treatment times in the order of 100ms, higher patient throughput and a reduction in patient motion can be achieved.
To date, most FLASH research is performed using proton or electron beams. There are many technical challenges delivering clinical FLASH employing these methods. Using protons requires large and expensive facilities, and electron FLASH is currently only able to treat superficial tumours. University of Oxford and Teledyne e2v are seeking to develop a solution using photons. This would enable Teledyne e2v to produce a system which is lower cost with a smaller footprint with reduced infrastructure requirements creating an affordable system across all geographical regions.
The project outcome should provide the feasibility of the photon FLASH system alongside a dose delivery method which can provide higher dose rates in order to reduce breath-hold and treatment times for current radiotherapy systems.
This project gives the student the opportunity to work with leading FLASH researchers and experts in RF power generation for radiotherapy to advance radiotherapy and improve patient experience and treatment throughputs.
How to apply
Before applying for these positions we recommend you contact the lead supervisors for informal discussions.
To make a formal application, please complete the University’s online application form for the DPhil in Oncology (please follow this link to the course website for further information on entry requirements and the application process itself).
Please indicate the iCASE project clearly by inserting ‘iCASE’ before the project title and by using the reference code iCASE. You will need to provide a personal statement (500 words max if applying for a project hosted by one of Medical Sciences departments - please note that this limit might be different if a project is hosted by one of MPLS departments in which case follow their requirement) detailing your interest and fit for the studentship. Note that no project proposal is required for the iCASE studentship applications.
If you wish to apply for a combination of iCASE and other projects within the hosting department, this can be done on the same application form (max number of projects you can apply for on one application depends on the department you wish to apply to).
If you wish to apply for iCASE projects within different departments, you will have to make separate applications directly through those departments.
If you have any specific queries about the iCASE application process, please email mrc@medsci.ox.ac.uk.
All applications must be received by the deadline of 12 noon (UK time) Friday 1 December 2023.
We expect to interview shortlisted applicants in January/February and to make funding offers by the end of February.
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