The University of Malta co-organised and chaired half the sessions of a week-long online Heavy-Ion Cancer Therapy Masterclass School attended by over 1,000 international students, half of whom were from Europe.
The school was one of the deliverables of a work package led by the university as part of the EU H2020 Heavy-Ion Therapy Research Integration (HITRIplus) project. The initiative was a task within the work package led by Nicholas Sammut from the university’s Department of Microelectronics and Nanoelectronics in the Faculty of ICT.
In contrast to cancer treatment based on X-rays, particle therapy significantly reduces the radiation dose in healthy tissue around the tumour and focuses the radiation on the cancer cells with much higher precision. This is particularly important in the treatment of tumours close to critical organs, as well as in children and in pregnant women.
On top of these key features, heavy-ion therapy offers even more precision and several advantages related to biological processes, which make it significantly more effective at killing even the most persistent of cancer cells that are resistant to X-ray therapy. Heavy-ion therapy also reduces the chances of tumour regrowth and spreading, and can be used to enhance the effectiveness of cancer immunotherapy.
The online-intensive school, held last May, consisted of 35 hours of contact time. It also included a hands-on mode that focused on treatment planning, including exercises on range verification, impact and mitigation of uncertainties, and dose optimisation.
The HITRIplus project consortium includes all four European heavy-ion cancer therapy centres, leading EU industries, academia, and research laboratories. They share the ambition to jointly build a strong pan-European heavy-ion therapy research community.
The school’s programme committee was chaired by GSI – Helmholtz Centre for Heavy Ion Research and apart from the University of Malta, included members from the German Cancer Research Centre (DKFZ), the European Organisation for Nuclear Research (CERN), the Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich, the South East European International Institute for Sustainable Technologies (SEEIIST) and the University of Sarajevo.
The event was supported by several other contributing institutions including Centro Nazionale di Adroterapia Oncologica (CNAO), MedAustron, Extreme Matter Institute (EMMI), Instituto Nazionale di Fisica Nucleare (INFN), the Ruder Boskovic Institute and Imperial College London, among others. The HITRIplus project is funded by the EU’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme.