Scottish Radiotherapy Research Forum 2023

The Royal College of Radiologists (RCR) has awarded the following CPD credits for those attending:
RCR Category 1 CPD Credits Awarded: Five (5)
Course Name: Annual Scientific Meeting of the Scottish Radiotherapy Research Forum

Stirling Court Hotel
University of Stirling, Airthrey Rd, Stirling FK9 4LA

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Anthony Chalmers is Chair of Clinical Oncology at the University of Glasgow and Director of the CRUK Glasgow RadNet Centre.

In addition to his neuro-oncology clinical practice at the Beatson West of Scotland Cancer Centre, he leads the Translational Radiation Biology laboratory in the Institute for Cancer Sciences and is Chief Investigator of a series of early phase clinical trials in glioblastoma and mesothelioma.

His research aims to improve outcomes for cancer patients by combining radiotherapy with molecular targeted drugs, with particular focus on inhibitors of the DNA damage response.

From 2016 to April 2019 he was Chair of the NCRI’s CTRad, and was Founding Chair of the UK Radiotherapy-Drug Combinations Consortium (RaDCom) and the Scottish Radiotherapy Research Forum (ScoRRF).

He is a Board member of the European Association for Neuro-Oncology (EANO), sits on the Molecular and Cellular Medicine Board of the Medical Research Council and led successful bids for Glasgow to host EANO 2024 and ESTRO 2024.

Marianne Aznar is a Professor in radiotherapy physics at the University of Manchester and at the Christie NHS Foundation Trust, the largest radiotherapy clinic in Europe. She is an accredited clinical Medical Physics, having practiced as a clinical scientist for 7 years in Canada and in Denmark.

Her research focuses on improving the delivery of radiotherapy to minimise the late effects of treatment, especially for patient groups who can expect a long life after their original cancer treatments (diagnoses include, e.g., Hodgkin Lymphoma, breast cancer and childhood cancer). 

Julie is a physicist in Aberdeen Radiotherapy Department. She gained a degree in Physics from Edinburgh University in 2001 then went on to complete a PhD there in 2004. She became registered as a Clinical Scientist in radiotherapy in 2008.

Julie has been involved in all areas of the radiotherapy service in Aberdeen and has played a significant role in the implementation of new techniques and technologies. More recently, she has moved focus to radiotherapy treatment planning. 

Since May 21 Julie has been heavily involved in the implementation of a Varian Ethos into the department.  Initially working as part of a multidisciplinary team to commission Ethos for Image Guided Radiotherapy (IGRT) and then developing a planning technique in the Ethos treatment planning system. More recently the team have implemented online adaptive treatments in head and neck on Ethos and are now developing the process for other sites.

Robert Huddart is Professor in Urological Cancer and Honorary consultant Clinical Oncologist at the Institute of Cancer Research (ICR) and Royal Marsden Hospital.

He has a major research interest in improving the management of bladder cancer, particularly to improve conservative treatment in patients with muscle invasive bladder cancer. A major focus of his current work is the technical development of radiotherapy, including research on intensity-modulated and image-guided radiotherapy and the application of new imaging techniques.

This is alongside work in selecting patients for conservative treatment, use of neoadjuvant and concomitant therapies and developing new systemic treatments.  His second major research interests are in the management of testicular cancer with a focus on improving outcomes in high-risk disease, minimising toxicity in low-risk disease, work on survivorship issues and the genetics of testicular cancer.

Dr Raj Jena is a group leader in machine learning & radiomics in the Department of Oncology at the University of Cambridge and an honorary consultant in neuro-oncology at Addenbrooke’s Hospital. He is responsible for a multi-disciplinary group who work to develop novel computational models in Oncology.

He is deputy director of the £8.2M Cancer Research UK funded RadNet Cambridge research programme, and is Principal Investigator of Hamlet.rt, the first prospective machine learning study in radiation therapy. He has developed computational models for NHS England, the Royal College of Radiologists, and commercial partners including Elekta and Accuray.

Dr Jena is also a clinical consultant to the InnerEye team at Microsoft Research, who have developed class-leading deep learning models for image processing and radiotherapy treatment planning. Through the link with the InnerEye team, Dr Jena also has developed specific expertise in cloud-based deployment and clinical integration of research algorithms.

Dr Jena is also director of the NIHR Oncology Research Collaboration (O-TRC) which facilitates collaboration between and beyond the NIHR Biomedical Research Centres (BRCs).

Helen is the lead research radiographer at The Royal Marsden NHS Foundation Trust and Professor at The Institute of Cancer Research.

She was awarded a HEE/NIHR Senior Clinical Lectureship in 2019, in the subject area of making ‘real time adaptive radiotherapy’ possible. Her other areas of research are the translation of novel radiotherapy technologies into clinical practice, investigating both the efficacy and efficiency.

She has contributed to many national and international guidelines, including IMRT, IGRT and Magnetic Resonance Image Guided radiotherapy (MRIgRT). She is a member of the European Society of Radiation Oncology teaching faculty for MRIgRT and is a Fellow of the British Institute of Radiology.

Since 2014, Dr Rafael Moleron has been a consultant clinical oncologist subspecialising in head and neck cancer and neuro-oncology in Aberdeen Royal Infirmary. He is an honorary senior lecturer in the University of Aberdeen.

Dr Moleron graduated from the University of Granada in 2003 and completed his training as a clinical oncologist in Hospital Puerta de Hierro in Madrid in 2008. He worked as a consultant oncologist in Madrid for 5 years before joining the team in Aberdeen.

Dr Moleron has a special interest in clinical research and advanced radiotherapy techniques, currently focused on online adaptive radiotherapy.

Esther Troost is an expert in image-guided high-precision radiotherapy and contributes to the advancing field of individualized medicine in photon- and proton-based radiotherapy. It is essence of her work to bring research findings into clinical application. Numerous publications in international high-ranking journals as well as a couple of renowned prizes, such as the ESTRO Varian Award, reflect her clinically relevant and patient-oriented research.

Esther Troost is committed to bring radiotherapy to a new level of accuracy and precision in individual treatments as well as to identify new fields of application. The exchange of knowledge and experience with colleagues as well as the joining of forces across professional and national boundaries is the basis of all her actions.

Wouter van Elmpt is program manager of the physics innovation team at Maastro. He is specialized in advanced imaging acquisition/analysis and treatment of cancer patients; he is appointed at the Maastricht University as an assistant professor since January 2015.

He holds a Master of Science degree in Applied Physics from the Eindhoven University of Technology (The Netherlands) with a specialization in Medical Physics. He obtained his PhD at the Maastricht University (The Netherlands) in 2009 in the field of radiotherapy treatment verification.

He published over 150 peer-reviewed publications and more than 200 abstracts/conference presentations and is work package leader and (co-)investigator on several national, company and European Union funded projects.

Currently his main focus is the implementation of innovation and research in routine clinical practice by leading an innovation team (6.5 FTE) of different disciplines (e.g. physicist, technicians, software engineers) to advance radiotherapy techniques for patient care.

'Pharmaceutical companies have sponsored this event via provision of an exhibition stand and will be present on the day'