Andrew Hayselden

As part of the Royal Society's summer science exhibition two fellow students and I were asked to be involved in the design and fabrication of an exhibition stand showcasing a new Cancer fighting technology.

 

The PRaVDA project, headed by Professor Nigel Allinson MBE, is a finalist in the Institution of Engineering and Technology (IET) Innovation Awards.

PRaVDA is a unique medical imaging and dosimetry instrument for use in treatment of cancer with proton therapy and is funded by a £1.6m grant from The Wellcome Trust. Currently at the prototype stage, the system will be one of the most complex medical imaging devices ever built. It will provide the Holy Grail for radiotherapists – namely, accurate proton CT (computerised tomography) images, eliminating the potential targeting errors of this new radiotherapy method. The behaviour of protons is very different to

x-rays and offers a number of advantages in radiotherapy. The proton beam does far less damage to healthy tissue when it passes through the body. This reduces the side effects of treatment, meaning higher doses of radiation can be delivered to the tumour site in a single treatment.