Course Director

Gert Meijer, Medical Physicist, UMC Utrecht, Utrecht (NL)

Co-Chair

Neil Burnet, Radiation Oncologist, The Christie Hospital, Manchester (UK)

Teachers

• Nicola Dinapoli, Radiation Oncologist, University Clinics A. Gemelli, Rome (IT)
• Ursula Nestle, Radiation Oncologist, Kliniken Maria Hilf, Mönchengladbach and Universitätsklinikum Freiburg, Freiburg (DE)
• Markus Stock, Medical Physicist, EBG MedAustron GmbH, Wiener Neustadt (AT)
• Desirée van den Bongard, Radiation Oncologist, Amsterdam UMC, Amsterdam (NL)
• Marcel van Herk, Radiotherapy Physicist, The Christie, Manchester (UK)

This five-day course intends to:

• Enhance the knowledge of comprehensive treatment planning and the understanding of strategies to obtain optimal treatment plans for patients. This implies a complex integration of clinical, imaging, biological and physical/technological knowledge, skills and competencies
• Focus on challenging scenarios related to the interaction of these issues with a specific focus on dose distribution, with and without computer aided optimization and modelling, in particular in more complex cases

Learning Outcomes

By the end of this course participants should be able to:

• Have a comprehensive understanding of all parts of the planning process and also plan evaluation for intensity modulated radiotherapy (both step-and-shoot IMRT and VMAT)
• Increase accuracy as well as effectiveness in the planning process
• Understand the problem of competing priorities in planning
• Appreciate the concept of plan optimisation
• Understand the basis for comparing different plans for the same case.

Course Content

• Broadening the therapeutic band width
• Dose calculation algorithms and their differences in clinical impact
• Applying ICRU in treatment planning
• Practical guidelines for both step-and-shoot IMRT and VMAT planning
• Relationships between 3D dose distributions and clinical toxicities, chest, head and neck, pelvis
• Particle therapy planning
• Physical and biological optimisation
• Pareto fronts in clinical practice
• Geometric uncertainties and how to deal with them
• Molecular imaging in treatment planning
• Adaptive planning strategies (both online and offline)
• Autoplannin, online planning, library planning, dose painting planning, robust and probabilistic planning.

Treatment Planning Systems

Eclipse, Monaco, RayStation and TomoTherapy.

Prerequisites

Experience of treatment planning with IMRT is desirable.  The course is aimed at staff routinely involved in advanced treatment planning in their daily routine, preferably with at least two years of experience. We encourage attendance not only for radiation therapists (RTTs) but also for physicists and radiation oncologists with clinical experience and a basic understanding of the fundamental components of treatment planning, who wish to deepen their knowledge of advanced treatment planning concepts and techniques, including the underlying optimization, prioritizing and balancing of clinical objectives

Teaching Methods

• 19 hours of lectures
• 9 hours of practical workshops
• 4 hours of case discussions.

Methods of Assessment

• MCQ
• Evaluation form.

Accreditation

Application for CME recognition will be submitted to the European Accreditation Council for Continuing Medical Education (EACCME), an institution of the European Union of Medical Specialists (UEMS). EACCME credits are recognised by the American Medical Association towards the Physician’s Recognition Award (PRA). Information on the status of the applications can be obtained from the ESTRO office.

A draft programme is available here.

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Membership

ESTRO members can order products at substantially reduced prices. To benefit from the member registration rate, you must subscribe for the ESTRO membership 2024 BEFORE registering to the course. To become an ESTRO member, benefit from the member registration rate and discover the many other member advantages, please visit the membership page.

Fees

* Members with specialty RadiationTherapist (RTT) may register at the In-Training fee

Early rates are applied up to three months before the starting date of the course.

Late rates are applied three months before the starting date of the course.

The fee includes the course material, coffees, lunches, and the social event.

Advance registration & payment are required.

Access to homework and/or course material will become available upon receipt of full payment.

Insurance and cancellation

ESTRO does not accept liability for individual medical, travel or personal accidents or incidents. Participants are strongly advised to take out their own personal insurance policies.   

For any cancellation made by the course or workshop participant, ESTRO School Events Cancellation Policy will be followed and all stated penalty fees will be applied. 

In the unlikely event that ESTRO would need to cancel the event, ESTRO will reimburse the participants in full for the registration fee. ESTRO will not refund any travel and accommodation expenses.

Reduced fees

Members from emerging countries may register at a preferential rate of 350 Euro. Emerging country fee applies to individuals from low-income and lower-middle-income economies according to the World Bank listing here.

Additionally, for this teaching course, all specialties from the following countries can benefit from this preferential rate: Albania, Belarus, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Hungary, Macedonia, Moldova, Montenegro, Romania, Russian Federation, Serbia, Turkey, Ukraine.  In addition, medical physicists from Cyprus can email education@estro.org to apply for this fee.

The preferential rate of 350 Euro is granted automatically when you click on the  BOOK NOW  button and the conditions below are met:

1. Only ESTRO members for 2024 are eligible (please make sure your 2024 membership is in order before you click on the BOOK NOW button)
2. The application is submitted 3 months before the course start date.
3. Only one course per person per year can be subsidized by ESTRO
4. Sponsored candidates are not entitled to reduced fees (the invoicing address has to be the one of the participant)  
5. The are limited spaces available for each course in the price category. Places are granted on “first come first serve” basis.