Medical physics in oncology is undergoing a transformation to one that increasingly integrates physical, biological, and clinical reasoning to determine the best treatment for each cancer patient. This evolution involves innovating and optimizing imaging and radiotherapy within the context of multimodality treatments. As targeted treatments and immunotherapies are becoming more prevalent, future medical physicists must learn to apply their physics expertise to uncover interactions between radiation, tumor biology, and treatment response. In this talk, I will present two humble examples from my laboratory that illustrate this emerging challenge. The first focuses on glioblastoma, the most aggressive and treatment-resistant brain tumors. I will introduce a novel intratumoral modulation therapy, a form of low intensity electrotherapy, and discuss how advances using physics in treatment planning and preclinical experiments are moving this toward clinical application. The second story involves pancreatic cancer, another disease with poor outcomes, where the integration of immunotherapy and radiation therapy offers new opportunities to stimulate anti-tumor immune responses synergistically. This example highlights how biological mechanisms can influence the design and delivery of radiation treatments. Through these two stories, I will illustrate how modern medical physics increasingly requires the integration of physics, medicine, and biology to answer clinically relevant questions. I will highlight opportunities for physics students interested in contributing to the next generation of cancer diagnosis and treatment. The talk will provide a glimpse into how physical insight and quantitative reasoning can help future cancer patients obtain the most effective treatments and achieve better outcomes.
Dr. Eugene Wong is currently Professor of Physics & Astronomy at Western University, cross appointed to Oncology and Medical Biophysics with 30 years of experience applying physics to medicine. After completing a residency at the Verspeeten Family Cancer Centre (formerly London Regional Cancer Program) of the London Health Sciences Centre, he led a team to implement new treatment delivery techniques in radiotherapy. For a decade, he was responsible for generating radiation treatment plans for the most complex patient cases. In collaboration with cancer biologists, imaging scientists, and oncologists, Eugene initiated the Oncology Physics Laboratory at Western in 2006 for preclinical research and has since been working on novel imaging and treatments for cancer patients. He was the past interim Director of Research and Education for the physics group at the London Regional Cancer Program before becoming the current chair of the Science Committee of the Canadian Organization of Medical Physicists. His role in the Science Committee is to help raise research profiles of early career and seasoned medical physicists across the country.