About us
Overview
For physicians, school will focus on:
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Principles of stereotactic radiotherapy, the CyberKnife system and its special features
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The clinical use of stereotactic radiotherapy for tumors in the
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Head
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Head and Neck
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Spine
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Lung (central and peripheral)
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Liver
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Pancreas and adrenals
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Abdominal lymph nodes
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Prostate
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- Teaching will be combined with hands on sessions on the planning system
- Real demonstrations with the CyberKnife will be used to show clinical examples
For physicists, school will focus on:
- Principles of stereotactic radiotherapy, the CyberKnife system and its special features
- Tips and tricks in Treatment planning (plan setup, optimization and dose evaluation, ...)
- The use of Monte Carlo and Dynamic respiration tracking (Synchrony)
- Quality Assurance for the CyberKnife System (patient specific, daily, ...), and small beam dosimetry
For RTTs, school will focus on:
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Principles of stereotactic radiotherapy, the CyberKnife system and its special features
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Patient Safety and Immobilization
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Hands on sessions on the CyberKnife:
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General
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Treatment with X-sight spine
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Treatment with X-sight lung
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Fiducial tracking with or without Synchrony
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Tips and tricks for Treatment delivery
Why Erasmus MC?
Venue of the European School of Robotics: a unique place in the Netherlands.
The course will be organized in the Erasmus Cancer Institute as part of Erasmus University Medical center in Rotterdam. Getting there, click here (How to get to Radiotherapy).
Erasmus MC is one of the leading faculties of Medicine in Europe. The Department of Radiation Oncology is part of the Erasmus MC Cancer Institute which is a comprehensive cancer center.
There are currently 31 radiation oncologists and 11 residents working in the department. The department is equipped with 12 linear accelerators, most equipped with cone-beam CT’s and 2 Cyberknives for SBRT. In addition the department has a world class program of Radiobiology on DNA repair, Medical Physics on automated planning and Intervention Radiotherapy including Brachytherapy and Hyperthermia. The department offers extensive possibilities for education and research.
Other information
Board of the School
Chairman: Dr Joost Nuyttens
Dr Nuyttens graduated from the Veterinarian School at Ghent University in 1993 and from the Medical School at Ghent University in Belgium in 1996.
Dr Nuyttens’s post-graduate medical specialty training included radiotherapy at Ghent University (Belgium). He then completed his education with advanced Radiation Oncology training at the Medical University of South Carolina (USA) and was a research fellow at the William Beaumont Hospital in Detroit (USA).
Since 2001, Dr Nuyttens has been working as a radiation oncologist in the Department of Radiation Oncology at the Daniel Den Hoed Cancer Centre (currently known as Erasmus MC Cancer Institute), Rotterdam, The Netherlands with a special focus on thoracic, digestive and gynaecologic cancers. He has published more than 90 publications in international journals. In the last 15 years, Dr Nuyttens has been using CyberKnife Robotic Radiosurgery to treat early stage NSCLC and isolated lung metastases and has published his results in many respected journals. He wrote 6 book chapters on different topics such as intraoperative brachytherapy and stereotactic radiotherapy for lung cancer.
Co-chairman: Dr Manouk Olofsen- van Acht
Dr (Manouk) Olofsen-van Acht graduated from Medical School at Leiden University, the Netherlands, in 1988.
Afterwards she began her postgraduate training in radiotherapy, also at Leiden University Hospital. She completed her training in 1992. In 1992 she started working as a radiation oncologist in the Department of Radiation Oncology at the Daniel Den Hoed Cancer Center (currently known as Erasmus MC Cancer Institute), Rotterdam, The Netherlands.
She worked on rectal toxicity and the influence of ageing and completed her PhD on this subject in 2001. After she obtained her PhD, she was involved in the development of a new curriculum for medical students in Rotterdam. She became a member of the National Education Committee for Radiotherapy in the Netherlands and of the National Examination Committee. From 2012 she became Chair of Education of the department of Radiotherapy in Rotterdam and became a member of the National Committee for external audits in radiotherapy. She stills works as a radiation oncologist in Rotterdam with a special interest in breast cancer and palliation.
Advisory Board: Professor Ben Heijmen
After obtaining MSc and PhD degrees in experimental molecular and laser physics at the Catholic University of Nijmegen, Professor Ben Heijmen started in 1988 with a residency in medical physics for radiotherapy in the former Daniel den Hoed Cancer Center (currently integrated in the Erasmus MC Cancer Institute). In 1992 he joined the medical physics faculty of the department of Radiation Oncology. In 2003 he became Research Director of the division of Medical Physics, and in 2010 division Head. In 2002 Ben Heijmen got an appointment as associate professor at the Erasmus University Rotterdam (EUR), in 2005 he was appointed as full professor. Ben Heijmen is project leader of many research projects. The projects are in the areas of automated treatment plan generation, computer optimization of (non-coplanar) beam angles, image-guided radiotherapy (IGRT), adaptive radiotherapy (ART), stereotactic body radiation therapy (SBRT) with a Cyberknife robotic treatment unit, proton therapy, and development of procedures and software for enhancement of patient safety, including electronic portal imaging (EPID) based in-vivo dosimetry.
He is member of the Physics Committee and the Education and Training Committee (ETC) of ESTRO, Director and teacher of the ESTRO course Physics for Modern Radiotherapy and the ESTRO Research Masterclass in Radiotherapy Physics, and chairman of the Scientific Program Committee of ESTRO’s 2016 annual meeting in Torino. He is also member of the Editorial Board of “Radiotherapy and Oncology” (Green Journal), associate editor of Medical Physics, and member of the Research Steering Group of Holland PTC, a particle therapy initiative. He has 160 peer-reviewed publications, h-index 35.
