The Physics Department aims at insuring high quality and safety in the use of Ionizing Radiations. The physics department provides all the medical physics resources for the Departments of Radiotherapy and Medical Imaging. It has also a strong involvement in medical physics research and radiation clinical research in radiotherapy and medical imaging and has active commitment in teaching activities .This department is composed of 8 qualified medical physicists including 6 medical physicist (4 PhD) for external radiotherapy, brachytherapy and radiation protection, and one PhD physicist dedicated for the nuclear medicine and radiological imaging department, who performs also research in this field. The team also includes 5 dosimetrists, 2 assistant-physicists and 3 student-physicists/year for training. In addition for the research program, the physicist team accommodates 2/3 students in Master of Science for a 6-month research projects and 1 PhD student in radiation physics.

The Department of Radiotherapy, (head Dr M Delannes) is composed of 8 senior radiation oncologists, one of them being full professor, 3 assistant professors and 4 residents . Near all modern techniques of irradiation are performed including stereotactic intracranial radiotherapy, gating, image guided irradiation, IMRT, total body irradiation, intra-operative radiation therapy for external radiotherapy and High Dose Rate, Pulse Dose Rate , permanent prostatic implant and iridium facility for brachytherapy. . The ICR department of radiotherapy treats 2000 patients by external radiotherapy/year with 4 modern linear accelerators, one of them with on board imaging, and one tomotherapy unit, and 300 by brachytherapy. In addition to the routinely performed innovative techniques of radiotherapy, this department is dedicated to translational research in the field of radiobiology (Team leader Pr Elizabeth Cohen-Jonathan Moyal, INSERMU563) in which the mechanisms of radioresistance are deciphered and in those of metabolic and functional imaging (Dr. Laprie, INSERM U825) with the objective of integrating metabolic imaging to the radiotherapy planning. Both axis of research belong to master and doctoral programs.

This research leads to the design and the realization of increasing numbers of early clinical trials developed in the radiotherapy department associating targeted drugs and integrating metabolic imaging as MRI spectroscopy and PET scan.

The Department of Imaging (head Dr F Courbon) is composed of 9 physicians (3 NM 6 Rx), it consists of 1 PET-CT, 1 SPECT-CT 1 SPECT,1 hot-lab, 1 MRI, 1CT, 2 ultrasound scanners, 2 digital mammography systems, 2 digital X-ray systems,1 radiochemistry unit and 1 patient care ward with 4 beds for targeted radiotherapy. Several physicians have university assignments (Medicine & Science) and there is a master (3 student/year) and doctoral program (4 ongoing PhD and 1 postdoc) in the field of oncology, medical imaging, radiochemistry and medical physics. It is also committed in fundamental and translational research through collaborative programs with clinicians, research units and industry. The department has the intention to improve its expertise in the following fields: i) Multimodality imaging for treatment planning for EBR & Brachytherapy & targeted radiotherapy and monitoring of targeted therapies ii) Preclinical model & Tyrosine kinase inhibitors & molecular Imaging. iii) Minimally Invasive Lymph node dissection (sentinel node), iv Endocrine Tumours (diagnosis & irradiation)

Part from the treatment response assessment for clinical trial in oncology the ongoing academic granted research programs performed in the department are Motion free & Dynamic PET-CT Acquisitions, Normoxic Gel Dosimetry for targeted radiotherapy, phantom development for digital mammography quality control, imaging probe targeting avb3 (18F GalactoRGD),) for PET, PET CT inter comparison study, radiolabelled (18F, 111In, 90Y) CCK2R targeted probes .

Ambitious project

The Comprehensive Cancer Center Institut Claudius Regaud (ICR) will be delocalized in 2013 on the Toulouse Cancer Campus dedicated to research. The new department of radiotherapy of this campus will treat approximately 2500/year patients by external radiotherapy and about 400 patients/year by brachytherapy. This department dedicated to innovation, will include 4-5 modern accelerators, 1 tomotherapy unit as well as an accelerator dedicated to stereotactic irradiation, 1 Tomotherapy unit as well as an accelerator dedicated to stereotactic irradiation

Moreover, a proton-therapy project is also currently under development and will integrate, in addition to the medical partners, scientific partners implicated as well in the field of biology, physics and aeronautics. This proton therapy facility will of course amplify research in the fields of radiobiology and physics, as well as in those of metabolic imaging dedicated to radiotherapy.

The department of imaging is due to have 1 additional PET and 1 MRI more, with strong capabilities for industrial collaboration for the evaluation and clinical validation of innovative medical imaging devices. The number of bed dedicated to targeted radiotherapy will be increase up to 14, representing one of the largest unit in France. An industrial cyclotron unit is already installed with F18 and C11 production capability.