Daniel Pols

Proton therapy is shaping up to be a serious competitor to conventional x-ray radiotherapy due to the proton beams' sharper dose profile, and has successfully been applied to numerous cancer types. For other tumour locations, however, proton therapy is much less effective due to its sensitivity to uncertainties. These uncertainties can occur from all kinds of sources, from the machinery used in the treatment to day-to-day anatomical changes. The main purpose of my research is to combat the effect of these uncertainties by building statistical methods to evaluate and build treatment plans. These methods would make sure that a treatment plan gives the proper dose to the tumour, and limits the dose on sensitive organs, even when uncertainties are present.