Uranchimeg Tsegmed 　2017年9月

My observer program at Proton Beam Therapy Center, University of Tsukuba Hospital

　　　I attended an international medical professional observer program at Proton Beam Therapy Center (PBTC), University of Tsukuba Hospital (UTH), between September 5 and 15 in 2017.
This practical and clinical training was very efficient for me. I could deepen my knowledge and experience in proton beam therapy.
Previously, I submitted to the International Medical Center (IMC), UTH, my letter of intent. I wrote in the letter of intent about my clinical interests that included a hadron beam therapy; a general principle of proton beam therapy, clinical applications of proton beam therapy particularly for liver tumors etc.

　　　The PBTC provided me a training schedule with comprehensive learning objectives. I attended individual seminars, clinical observations, facility tour and morning clinical conferences of Proton Medical Research Center (PMRC). On the first day Dr. Yasuoka, medical physicist, taught me a general physical principle of hadron beam therapies (proton and carbon beam therapies and also boron neutron capture therapy etc) and its future prospects. Then I had facility tour with Prof. Sakae, head of the medical physics group. Prof. Sakae introduced to me the synchrotron - a huge accelerator machine of proton beam. On the second day, Prof. Sakurai, director of the Proton Beam Therapy Center, gave me a lecture about the current status and perspective radiation therapy for liver tumors. Dr. Okumura, radiation oncologist, presented to me clinical and research outcomes on proton beam therapy for liver cancer. I was amazed by wonderful outcomes of proton beam therapy for advanced liver cancers. Prof. Tsuboi, director of the PMRC, introduced to me about Proton Medical Research Center and their research projects on DNA damage and repair, and immune response. On the final day, Dr. Kumada, medical physicist, talked about research and development for boron neutron capture therapy.

I had a great chance to learn unexpected knowledge and clinical practice. One of these was the Image Guided Brachytherapy for advanced cervical cancer using hybrid brachytherapy techniques, a combination of intracavitary and interstitial brachytherapy. I have read about hybrid brachytherapy for gynecological cancer but I have never observed this treatment before. Moreover, I observed how to conducted collaborative research between radiation biology and physics’ teams using synchrotron for research. I was very impressed by Prof. Sakurai, Prof. Tsuboi and Prof. Sakae’s teams.

I strongly believe that my knowledge and experience gained through this observer program will support and highly influence my career path in the future.

I wish to thank to Prof. Sakurai and Prof. Akiyama for giving me an incredible chance to be trained at the Proton Beam Therapy Center and I also thank to Prof. Tsuboi, Prof. Sakae and their team members for their teaching and guidance. Finally, I would like to thank to Ms. Fukaya, staff of IMC and Mr. Takei, medical physicist for their wonderful assistance.