Fighting cancer with tiny particles

A modern treatment method that has gained increased attention in recent years is proton therapy, a technique that uses subatomic particles called protons to combat cancer.

In this method, billions of high-energy protons are concentrated into a millimeter-thin beam that is directed precisely at the tumor. The radiation damages the DNA of the cancer cells and helps to kill them, while largely sparing the surrounding healthy tissue.

One challenge in proton therapy is verifying how deep the beam penetrates the body (i.e., the beam’s range), and whether it actually hits the tumor as planned. Therefore, current research focuses on so-called range-verifying detector systems, which in principle can be used to monitor both the amount of radiation delivered to the patient and how far the proton beam reaches.

Developing algorithms

This dissertation entails computational modeling and the development of image reconstruction algorithms for an innovative range-verification detector system based on imaging of fast neutrons and prompt gamma rays, which are produced when the proton beam interacts with tissue during treatment. The dissertation primarily focuses on the former particle. Key methods in the research include Monte Carlo simulations for modeling particle interactions in matter, as well as deep learning for image-to-image translation.

Personalia

Lena Marie Setterdahl (born 1997) has a master's degree in medicinal physics from the Institute of Physics and Technology at the University of Bergen (UiB). She has been following the PhD programme Computer Science: Software Engineering, Sensor Networks and Engineering Computing. Setterdahl spent three months as a guest researcher at the University of Manchester.

 

She has several years' worth of experience in Monte Carlo simulations of particle interactions in materials, detector modelling and scientific computing. She has worked as a student assistent at UiB for several years, and during her time as a PhD research fellow, she has taught Mathematics and Physics at HVL.

 

Trial lecture

Time: Monday September 15th at 13:15.

Place: Campus Bergen, K2, room M207.
Topic: Manual Feature Engineering - uses and history  

Zoomlenke: https://hvl.zoom.us/j/65945049322?pwd=VK68qhzkgwhc9zUwORiiChlbbaVXOZ.1

Meeting ID:  659 4504 9322

Passcode:    525643

Chair of the Trial Lecture

Instituttleder Kristin Fanebust Hetland.

Public Defence

Time: Tuesday September 30th. Time of day will be announced.
Place: HVL, campus Bergen, K2, room M005.

Chair of the Defence

To be announced.

Supervisors

• Associate Professor Ilker Meric, HVL (main supervisor)
• Associate Professor Kyrre Skjerdal, HVL (secondary supervisor)
• Professor William B. Lionheart, University of Manchester, the United Kingdom (secondary supervisor)
• Associate Professor Danny Lathouwers, Delft University of Technology, the Netherlands (secondary supervisor)

Assessment committee:

• Professor Yngve Lamo, HVL (chair of the committee)
• Professor Magdalena Rafecas, University of Lübeck, Tyskland (first opponent)
• Dr. Per-Ivar Lønne, Oslo University Hospital (second opponent)