Participating individuals from ICEC, CERN and STFC, along with experts in accelerator design, medical physics and oncology, convened in late March, in Manchester, England near the STFC’s Daresbury Laboratory to review the program status and plan for the next phase of development. Watch this space for updates.
NCIS hosted the annual International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) Advanced Training Course on 3D Image-Guided Brachytherapy (IGBT) for cervical cancer from 23 to 27 Mar 2015.
This intensive five day course was attended by 29 participants from 14 countries across Asia. The faculty was both local and international. We had several speakers from NCIS, including Dr Choo Bok Ai, Dr Lee Khai Mun, Dr Vicky Koh and Ms Tan Poh Wee. Two international experts, Dr Umesh from Tata Memorial Hospital, India as well as Ms Sylvia from Peter Mac, Australia, were also invited to share their experience and expertise. Besides didactic lectures, participants were given ample time for interactive “hands-on” sessions, where our local physicists could give personalized attention to the participants, and impart some “tips” and “tricks” on brachytherapy planning.
This course is offered as part of the Regional Cooperative Agreement among IAEA member states to improve technical cooperation and education in our region. As the host institution for Singapore, we were privileged to have to opportunity to share our knowledge and interact with our fellow specialists in this specialized field. 3D Image-Guided Brachytherapy is relatively new and is a more accurate way of delivering radiation treatment compared to 2D brachytherapy. It is especially important when high doses of radiation are given with curative intent, such as in the treatment of cervical cancer. However, this treatment is resource-intensive and requires significant training and education of the entire medical team involved. We hope that this course has been of some value for our colleagues looking to adopt this treatment strategy.