New group at Department of Physics

Hadron therapy is a special radiotherapy procedure in which a tumor is irradiated with high-energy particles - instead of photons as in conventional radiation. Most often, these particles are protons, which is why this form of therapy is often referred to as proton therapy. From an accelerator, the particles are precisely directed at the tumor tissue as a focused beam at up to 60 percent of the speed of light. As the beam enters the human body, the protons are slowed down and deliver most of their energy directly to the tumor site, thereby damaging the tumor cells. The advantage of hadron therapy is that a very high radiation dose can be deposited in the tumor while sparing the surrounding tissue - especially organs at risk. Using special physical methods, the tumor can be irradiated very precisely along its individual shape.

Medical Physics at the Department of Physics at TU Dortmund University is now expanding its research on the physical principles and applications in hadron therapy. Already in January, the new interdisciplinary graduate college „Precision Proton Therapy” started. The aim is to introduce doctoral students to proton therapy. They are to conduct research on topics of the complex process chain - from imaging to irradiation - and thus improve clinical application. The graduate college is carried out through a collaboration between the Department of Physics at TU Dortmund University, the Clinic for Particle Therapy at the West German Proton Therapy Center Essen (WPE) of the University Medical Center Essen, the Medical Faculty of the University of Duisburg-Essen and Technical Chemistry I (TC1) as well as the Center for Nanointegration Duisburg-Essen (CENIDE). The research training group is funded by the Mercator Research Center Ruhr (MERCUR).

Junior Professor Armin Lühr joins the Physics Faculty in mid-March

Starting in mid-March, Armin Lühr will also join the faculty as a junior professor of medical physics with a focus on computational physics. JProf. Lühr conducted extensive proton therapy research at the TU Dresden and will work closely with the West German Proton Therapy Center Essen in the future. His contribution to the optimization of hadron therapy is based on complex simulations, applied atomic and nuclear physics, radiobiology and statistical methods.

At the end of March, the „Masterclasses” will also be held for the first time in the field of medical physics. This is an internationally widespread event format aimed at interested students, which has already been offered extremely successfully in particle physics. In lectures by JProf. Armin Lühr and PD Christian Bäumer, WPE, the participants learn about the basics and methods of proton therapy and can become active themselves in workshops. For example, they can create radiation treatment plans.