Project: "Distributed Radiation Sensing for Radiotherapy, Nuclear Medicine, and Industrial Medical Applications"

Funded by The Royal Society -Research Ireland University Research Fellowship

This research project draws on the expertise gained through Fellowship activities to develop a highly innovative distributed radiation sensing system to improve cancer care. Having collaborated for many years with medical physicists and radiation oncologists from across the world, the same message is always relayed - “single point sensing is good, but we really need to be able to monitor the radiation dose across the entire length of the urethra and rectal wall”. This is challenging. The geometrical constraints within these organs (<2mm diameter) prohibit the ability to insert the number of discrete sensors required to obtain the dose-volume information. This project addresses the urgent need to monitor the radiation dose received by nearby organs during radiotherapy. It builds on my team’s work in monitoring radiation effects on optical fibre materials and our vast clinical testing experience. Supported by our collaborator’s experience in distributed sensing, we will develop a system that can monitor radiation along the length of a single optical fibre. During system development, a lower spatial resolution will initially be tested, an application of which is in radioisotope production. Following this, a high spatial resolution system (at least 5cm) will be developed for applications in radiotherapy and nuclear medicine. The use of innovative techniques will ensure the required spatial resolution is provided without compromising on sensitivity. The system will lead to a significant advancement within radiation sensing, providing vital radiation dose measurements and allowing for dose-led treatment plans, improved health-related quality of life outcomes and reduced treatment errors.

Project: "ORIGIN: Optical Fibre Dose Imaging for Adaptive Brachytherapy"

Funded by: EU H2020 - ICT-05-2019 - Application driven photonics components

ORIGIN aims to deliver more effective, photonics-enabled, brachytherapy for cancer treatment through advanced real-time radiation dose imaging and source localisation. This will be achieved by the development of a new optical fibre based sensor system to support diagnostics-driven therapy through enhanced adaptive brachytherapy. A 16-point optical fibre sensors system will be developed, for Low Dose Rate (LDR) and High Dose Rate (HDR) Brachytherapy, with sensitivity of 150 counts/Gy for LDR- and 2500 counts/mGy for HDR- BT alongside a dedicated data acquisition system providing a dose mapping system with a spatial resolution of 0.5mm (HDR) and 3mm (LDR) and time resolution of 0.1s (HDR) and 0.5s (LDR), with 5% uncertainty. This is a 50% improvement in uncertainty over existing systems. Further interrogation of the optical signal will provide real-time monitoring of the radiation source location during treatment. The ORIGIN system will be integrated into existing clinical brachytherapy treatment planning and delivery systems to confirm that the dose prescribed to the tumour is achieved, whilst ensuring the dose to organs at risk (OARs) is within acceptable limits. This will provide for optimised dose-led, patient-oriented, personalised treatment plans leading to improved patient outcomes and prevention of treatment errors, with the potential to reduce the overall risk of treatment error by 55%. The optical fibre radiation dosimeters will be further optimised for improved optical signal collection efficiency, higher signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) and repeatable high volume fabrication. Taking manufacturability into consideration from the outset will ensure that ORIGIN establishes Europe at the fore of brachytherapy system development and photonics manufacturing.

Project: "Advancing Photonics for Radiotherapy"

Funded by The Royal Society Science Foundation Ireland University Research Fellowship

This project addresses the challenges of delivering effective and optimal radiation treatment for oncology, with specific focus on Low Dose Rate Brachytherapy for treating prostate cancer. It focuses on the need for personalised real-time radiation monitoring during advanced cancer treatments by proposing advances in photonics technology applicable to radiotherapy. It focuses on the development of highly innovative optical fibre based technology to create in-vivo devices for the diagnosis, assessment and radiotherapy treatment of prostate cancer tumours. Specialist micro-machining techniques, based on femto-second laser and ultra-precision diamond tooling, will allow for miniaturised sensor tips to be incorporated at the end of an optical fibre. The small geometries of optical fibres, coupled with the novel and innovative use of micro-machining technologies, facilitates in-vivo placement of the sensors at the tumour site or nearby critical structures requiring monitoring. Furthermore the development of a fully integrated sensor system, in close consultation with leading clinicians and radiotherapy physicists, will ensure the sensors can be incorporated within current clinical environments in a minimally invasive means. The measurement of oxygen concentration, coupled with the in-vivo radiation dose measurement, constitutes a powerful combination of leading-edge optical fibre based measurement techniques, providing potential solutions to as yet unresolved problems (reliable and repeatable measurements during the treatment of hypoxic tumours). This opens up the possibility of adapting the radiation dose delivered during the course of the radiotherapy treatment, with a consecutive impact on improving patient outcomes. 

Dr Sinéad O’Keeffe is a Royal Society – Research Ireland University Research Fellow at the Optical Fibre Sensors Research Centre at the Department of Electronic & Computer Engineering, University of Limerick and a member of UL’s Health Research Institute. She graduated with BE (hons) in Electronic Engineering from the University of Limerick in 2003 and received her PhD in 2006 from the same institute, for the development of polymer optical fibre sensors for the sterilization industry. On completion of her PhD, she worked as a Marie Curie Research Fellow in the General Engineering Research Institute at Liverpool John Moores University, developing optical fibre sensors for monitoring UV and Ozone. She returned to the Optical Fibre Sensors Research Centre at the University of Limerick in 2008 and was awarded an FP7 Marie Curie Research Fellowship developing radiation dosimeters for monitoring patient doses received during radiotherapy for cancer treatment. She was Chair of the highly successful COST Action TD1001 aimed at developing fibre optic sensor systems for reliable use in safety and security relevant applications in society. She is currently a Royal Society – Research Ireland University Research Fellow leading a team that focuses on the development of optical fibre based sensor systems for the diagnosis, assessment and treatment of cancer tumours. She is co-ordinator for the  European H2020 Project “ORIGIN” developing optical fibre based sensors for real-time dose imaging and source localisation for adaptive brachytherapy.