Digital Twins in Proton Therapy to Improve Cancer Treatment

Contact person: Nina Jeppesen Edin
Keywords: Digital twin, Cancer, Proton Therapy, Personalized simulation    
Research group: Biophysics and Medical Physics
Department of Physics

This research looks at how digital twin technology can be developed and applied to proton therapy of cancer. By making virtual copies of both the patient and the proton therapy system, we can run personalized simulations and make optimizations. These digital twins facilitate real-time treatment monitoring of tumor and critical healthy tissues to adjust the fractionated proton treatment as needed. Combining medical imaging, data analysis, computer modeling, and molecular analysis of tissue biopsies in this way could make cancer care more tailored to each individual. The goal is to make proton therapy more effective and improve outcomes for patients by using these virtual copies to tune treatment plans.

Topics from methodological research:

  • Image processing and registration techniques

  • Survival modelling

Topics from natural sciences or technology:

  • Medical imaging such as CT and MRI
  • Proton therapy simulations including the Monte Carlo technique for particle transport calculation
  • Tissue and/or liquid-based multi-omics approaches and analyses

External partners:

  • Institute of clinical medicine, University of Oslo (UiO)
  • Department of Radiation Biology, Oslo University Hospital (OUH)
  • Department of Medical Physics, Oslo University Hospital (OUH)
  • Department of Oral Biology, University of Oslo (UiO)
  • Centre for Healthcare Data Science, Norwegian University of Life Sciences (NMBU)