Article published DOSEO
Towards greater safety in radiotherapy!
Created in 2008, the Doseo platform intends to become France's reference centre for radiotherapy issues and the fight against cancer. The goal? Development of high precision techniques to minimise secondary effects in patients.
Radiotherapy, the major technique for treating cancers, is used on 60 % of cancers in France, so that nearly 200,000 illnesses are treated each year. Supported by the Cancer plan, radiotherapy has benefited from the arrival of equipment on the market which is more efficient and less harmful with, for example, image guidance for new methods (small beams, protons, ions) and servo-controlled movements. However, events involving overdoses, location errors and data confusion do still occur, causing burns, secondary effects and deaths. The cause is technical malfunctions or poor operation of this high technology equipment.
The CEA, INCa (Institut national du cancer - National cancer institute), LNE (Laboratoire national de métrologie et d'essais - National Metrology and Testing Laboratory) and the INSTN (Institut national des sciences et techniques nucléaires - National Institute for Nuclear Science and Technology) have combined their expertise to improve the control of radiotherapy risks.
Launched in 2008, the DOSEO platform will move in 2011 into an open area at the CEA-Saclay centre, near to NeuroSpin, in a new 2,000 m2 building. Designed around a technology platform which includes two of the latest generation of medical accelerators, with imaging and calculation resources, from 2012 this equipment will be of benefit to various players when carrying out their R&D activities. It combines equipment (in vivo dosimetry, imaging, etc.), software (treatment planing systems, calculation and reconstruction of doses, etc.) and services (calibration, tests, evaluation, certification of equipment, etc.), and will help develop the required technology and metrology for optimisation and safety of radiotherapy for patients, before, during and after treatment. The researched objectives are less secondary effects, more chances of healing and less impact on the tissues surrounding the tumour. An initial and continuing training section will be offered for radiotherapy operators. The orientation and running of the programmes will be entrusted, on the basis of relevant instances, to the platform partners themselves: doctors, hospital physicians, industrial partners, regulatory players, researchers etc. Finally, Doseo will benefit from financial support from the INCa and the General Directorate for businesses, who have just awarded it their "Innovation platform" label.
In the long term, Doseo intends to become the French reference centre, which will be relied on by radiotherapy professionals as well as regulators and companies in the health market.
