Objective
The present project, MAESTRO, proposes innovative research to develop and validate in clinical conditions the advanced equipment needed in cancer treatment for new modalities in high conformal external radiotherapy employing photons and protons beams.
Within the MAESTRO project, novel technologies in patient alignment, organ tracking, dose calculation and dose measurement will be developed, together with advanced software for radiotherapy image processing and merging for therapy planning using new conformal therapy modalities. Clinical environments will be provided for pre-clinical validation. Workshops with medical physicists and radiotherapists will contribute optimising the new products for clinical applications, prior to their commercialisation.
Deliverables concern the validation of the advanced equipment needed to perform treatments in correlation with new therapeutic protocols for patient safety. These new tools will be available as prototypes before the end of this study such as real time imaging devices devoted to high energy photon beams and protons, and software using fast Monte Carlo codes well known for its high accuracy in any material and beam situation and finally new point, 2D surface and 3D volume dosimeters allowing better patient positioning, beam and dose monitoring.
The project is staged in four phases comprising clinical users workshops to establish the new requirements, an intense research effort with industrials on the development, and clinical validation on phantoms and finally in a clinic environment. Research proposed in MAESTRO based on new high technologies and advanced knowledge cannot be developed by companies alone. A number of technological and scientific breakthroughs have to be over passed.
Clinics and research centres associated with industries give the critical mass necessary in Europe. The total budget is estimated at 10 MEuros for a consortium comprising 24 partners.
Fields of science
- natural sciencescomputer and information sciencessoftware
- engineering and technologyelectrical engineering, electronic engineering, information engineeringelectronic engineeringcontrol systems
- natural sciencesmathematicspure mathematicstopology
- natural sciencesphysical sciencestheoretical physicsparticle physicsphotons
- natural sciencescomputer and information sciencesartificial intelligencecomputational intelligence
Keywords
Call for proposal
FP6-2002-LIFESCIHEALTH
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Funding Scheme
IP - Integrated ProjectCoordinator
PARIS
France
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Participants (24)
LOUVAIN-LA-NEUVE
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DELFT
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FRASCATI
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CACHAN
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KRAKOW
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HÉROUVILLE SAINT CLAIR
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Postbus 25 PETTEN
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CATANIA
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ROME
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TEDDINGTON, MIDDLESEX
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VILLEJUIF
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CAEN
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NORWICH
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ALBACETE
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COVENTRY
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KRAKOW
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LE CHESNAY
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BARCELONA
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PARIS
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COVENTRY
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UPPSALA
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FIRENZE
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ESSEN
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LOUVAIN-LA-NEUVE
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