Wednesday 6 June 2012 

Speaker: Claire Timlin (University of Oxford)


Title: "Curing cancer patients with charged particles"

Abstract: "Charged particle therapy (CPT) is a high-tech, targeted form of 
radiotherapy that has already been used to treat about 80,000 cancer patients 
worldwide, and is rapidly expanding.  Protons are the most commonly used charged 
particle but carbon ion therapy is also becoming more prevalent, with both 
treatments producing some very promising clinical results to date.  Despite 
widespread clinical use there is still a great deal of research needed to 
further understand and fully optimise the treatments. The Particle Therapy 
Cancer Research Institute (PTCRi), part of the Oxford Martin School, 
University of Oxford, was set up three years ago to tackle some of the 
important research challenges in CPT. In my talk I will introduce charged 
particle therapy (CPT), why it’s considered a promising treatment and how 
it’s delivered.  I will go on to explain some of the open research questions 
in this field and how the team at the PTCRi is attempting to answer them".