Functional Imaging in Treatment Planning - Existing Standards and Future Developments (ESTRO in collaboration with ICIS and EANM)

Course Directors
• Vincent Khoo, Clinical Oncologist, Royal Marsden NHS Foundation Trust, London (UK)
• Robert Hermans, Radiologist, Katholieke Universiteit Leuven, Universitair Ziekenhuis Gasthuisberg, Leuven (BE)
• Wim Oyen, Nuclear Medicine Specialist, Radboud University, Nijmegen Medical Centre, Nijmegen (NL)

Background
• Recently functional and biological imaging has been playing an increasing role in the management of patients with solid malignancies. This form of imaging is being more routinely used for the staging, treatment response evaluation and follow-up of oncology patients.
• The attraction of these imaging modalities is now being assessed for its applications for radiotherapy treatment planning to select and delineate more reliably and accurately the appropriate target volumes to optimise the planning process. Validation of these data is on-going in several tumour subsites.

Objectives
Within this framework, the teaching course will aim at:
• Reviewing the basic principles of image acquisition with MRI and PET including discussions, aspects of functional MR sequences and contrast mechanisms and tracer developments as well as image segmentation and co-registration.
• Discussing the present use of functional imaging with MRI and PET in head and neck, CNS, lung and prostate cancers with emphasis on its applications and limitations for radiotherapy treatment planning.

Educational Programme

09:00 – 09:10  Introduction: Vincent Khoo, Robert Hermans, Wim Oyen
09:10 – 09:40  Principles of PET Imaging: Arturo Chiti (IT)
09:40 – 10:10  Principles of MR Imaging: Heinz-Peter Schlemmer (DE)
10:10 – 10:40  Principles of Image Segmentation, co-registration, and data transfer: John Lee (BE)
10:40 – 11:00  Discussion
11:00 – 11:15  Coffee break
11:15 – 12:05  Principles of functional MR in oncology: Anwar Padhani (GB)
12:05 – 13:00  PET tracers and biomarkers for oncology: Eric Aboagye (GB) - tbc
13:00 – 13:45  Lunch
13:45 – 14:10  The use of PET for H&N tumours: Wim Oyen (NL)
14:10 – 14:35  The use of MR for H&N tumours: Robert Hermans (BE)
14:35 – 15:00  Biological Treatment Planning – Applications and Issues: Marcus Alber (DE)
15:00 – 15:15  Discussion
15:15 – 15:30  Coffee Break
15:30 – 16:00  The use of Functional Imaging for CNS cancer treatment planning: Anca-Ligia Grosu (DE)
16:00 – 16:30  The use of Functional Imaging for lung cancer treatment planning: Dirk De Ruysscher (NL)
16:30 – 17:00 T he use of Functional Imaging for prostate cancer treatment planning: Jelle Barentsz (NL)
17:00 – 17:30  General Discussion & Panel Discussion