Radiobiology

Our team is harnessing the effects that cells use to communicate responses to radiation to improve the outcomes of radiotherapy treatments for cancer. Our team was awarded the prestigious Roberts Prize by the journal ‘Physics in Medicine and Biology’ for our recent work that showed that these effects, known as ‘by-stander’ effects can be classified into 3 types some of which increase cell death following a radiation exposure and some of which reduce cell death. This work is promising to improve the outcomes of cancer patients by using the full capabilities of modern radiation therapy equipment such as Intensity Modulated Radiation Therapy [IMRT]. In recent work a mathematical framework has been developed for including ‘by-stander’ effects in treatment planning.