discovered_01_2015

discovered 01 .15 PORTRAIT WWW.HZDR.DE subjected to radiotherapy beams from the back and the front. You can’t even say it was unsuccessful, but the cure rates were low and the side-effects were much more serious.’ Today, researchers around the world are working on ways of isolating and classifying tumors solely on the strength of image analysis. ‘I have already been wondering what we can do in the short term to extract precisely these details from the data collected,’ says Troost. To achieve this, the images of the patient’s body would have to deliver parameters to answer questions like: Is it an infection or a tumor? How do the receptors on the surface of cancer cells differ from the healthy cells? Can receptors be classified using imaging procedures? Which data help to characterize tumors better? At OncoRay, the National Center for Radiation Research in Oncology, ideas are continually perfected and bridges built. The two researchers are totally enthused: ‘Using imaging during radiotherapy is already standard practice here. We can plan three-, or even four-dimensional, radiotherapy if you include the time factor.’ Computer tomography (CT) and a combined PET/CT unit have been in use for years. Now the PET/MRI equipment for whole-body scanning from the Helmholtz Center has completed the unique OncoRay research platform. ‘Where this journey will lead in the next three, four or five years, is almost impossible to tell today, but it’s important to us that we are part of it.’ _Institute of Radiooncology at HZDR Prof. Esther Troost / Dr. Aswin Hoffmann e.troost@hzdr.de / aswin.hoffmann@hzdr.de CONTACT DIVISION OF LABOR: Esther Troost is the woman for the head; Aswin Hoffmann ‘is more the one for the pelvis.’ Photo: Stephan Wiegand

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