04/05/2022
By William Swanson

Please join PhD in Medical Physics candidate William Swanson for the defense of his dissertation.

Title: “Hypofractionated Radiotherapy and Developing Cost-Effective Modalities for Low- and Middle-Income Countries”
Date: April, 14 at 2 p.m.
Location: Via Zoom. Please contact William_Swanson@student.uml.edu for the Zoom link

Committee Members:

  • Wilfred Ngwa
  • Erno Sajo
  • Marian Jandel

Abstract:
Low- and Middle-Income Countries (LMICs), particularly those in Africa, continue to struggle addressing the severe cancer burden crisis in those limited-resource regions. The Global Cancer Observatory, made available by the International Agency of Research on Cancer, reported more than 93,000 prostate cancer incidences with more than 47,000 prostate cancer related deaths across Africa in 2020 alone and estimates the burden to grow by 20% by 2025. In attempt to alleviate the severe cancer burden in LMICs, this work focuses on advocating the adoption of hypofractionated radiotherapy (HFRT) techniques for prostate cancer and research development of other cost-effective strategies. Described in this work are the first steps in promoting HFRT practices: using an activity-based-costing model, HFRT adoption in African radiotherapy clinics was demonstrated to provide significant cost savings and greater treatment access; in a needs assessment survey to several African radiotherapy clinics, infrastructure and training gaps were identified to determine the current clinical capacity to adopt HFRT; and through a critical literature review of clinical trials, reports by professional societies, and American Association of Physicists in Medicine Task Group Reports, a practical guide to practice evidence-based HFRT for prostate cancer was developed for African clinics interested in its adoption. Additionally, preliminary experiments are discussed in exploration of nanoparticle science and immunotherapy applications in radiotherapy as potential future research endeavors for developing cost-effective treatment modalities.