The COMP Residency Committee is excited to present the twelfth session of the Medical Physics Resident Seminar Series, which will be a talk by Dr. Amanda Cherpak on Total Marrow Irradiation.
This session will occur on Wednesday, April 13, 2022 at 1:00 PM EST and will be open to all Medical Physics residents across Canada, as well as all COMP resident and graduate student members.
Le Comité des résidents du COMP est ravi de présenter la douzième session de la série de séminaires pour les résidents en physique médicale, qui sera une présentation par Dre Amanda Cherpak sur l'Irradiation corporelle totale.
Cette session aura lieu le mercredi 13 avril 2022 à 13h00 HNE et sera ouverte à tous les résidents en physique médicale du Canada, ainsi qu'à tous les membres résidents et étudiants du COMP.
password: resident
Here is a brief bio of Dr. Amanda Cherpak and an overview of her presentation:
Dr. Amanda Cherpak is the Director of Clinical Medical Physics in Halifax, Nova Scotia. She is an Associate Professor at Dalhousie University, holding cross-appointments with the Departments of Radiation Oncology and Physics & Atmospheric Sciences. Amanda received her PhD in Medical Physics from Carleton University in Ottawa, Ontario. Her thesis research involved detector development, real-time in vivo dosimetry and position tracking during radiation therapy treatments. Of particular interest was urethral sparing during permanent seed implants for prostate brachytherapy and measurement of breathing pattern changes for patients undergoing external beam treatment for lung cancer. Amanda completed a two year residency program in clinical oncology medical physics then returned to her home province of Nova Scotia where she has been a member of the Dalhousie Department of Radiation Oncology since 2013. Amanda takes part in clinical duties as well as a broad range of teaching, research and supervisory activities. Her current research interests include 3D printing applications in brachytherapy and adaptive planning. Amanda serves as co-director of the Dalhousie Medical Physics Residency Program and sits on the COMP Education Committee. Outside of her professional duties, Amanda participates in community outreach, giving invited talks on medical physics and STEM careers at local high school and universities as well as with Women in Science and Engineering (WISE).
Overview of TMI presentation:
In Nova Scotia, 15-20 patients per year are treated with total body irradiation (TBI) prior to bone marrow transplant. Since 2004, these patients received TBI using extended distance parallel-opposed fields. The machine used for these treatments was scheduled for decommissioning in 2015, which necessitated the need for development of a new technique. It was decided to proceed with VMAT-based total marrow irradiation (TMI), a new method that was in use in a few select centres. This was a departure from the previously used procedure in every way. TBI plans used hand calculations based on physical measurement of patient dimensions, attenuators designed from planar images, and open fields directed at a patient on a stretcher. Our TMI procedure would eventually include two full-body CT scans with immobilization, contouring of over twenty OAR and target structures, VMAT optimization, plan verification, and precise positioning. This talk will focus on the technical aspects of TBI and TMI as well as looking at project management for such a change in practice.
As always, we are recruiting presenters for future seminars, so if you and your center are interested, please sign up via the google sheet:
Any questions or comments can be directed to the COMP resident representatives:
