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[Music]

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Hello everyone and welcome to
another interview in Medical Physics.

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In this video, we will meet Evelyn, 
a Master's student in the Division of

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Division of Biomedical Physics in Radiation Oncology. We are here in the
building Imaging and Radiooncology of the

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German Cancer Research Center 
and here on the second floor,

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the students and and Post-Docs have their offices. 
That means let's meet Evelyn at her workplace on. 

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Hello Evelyn, thank you for your time.
Maybe you can introduce yourself briefly.

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Yes, I'm Evelyine, I'm a Master's student in the 
Division of Biomedical Physics in Radiation Oncology

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here at the DKFZ. You are a Master's student here at the DKFZ. 
What are you working on?

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Well, I actually handed in my 
Master's thesis a few months ago. 

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And now I'm still writing a paper
on the topic. I'm working on a relatively new

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radiation method called minibeam, and
what we have with the conventional method is

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that we irradiate the tumor, if this is the tumor,
with a homogeneous dose distribution

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and then you get a dose pattern that
then looks something like this if this is

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the dose and at minibeam. We write
over it and at minibeam we have a

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similar device, a kind of grid
between the tumor and the beam

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and then we generate
a dose pattern with dose peaks and

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dose levels, that is to say we rely here
on an inhomogeneous dose distribution and

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my project was to measure the oxygen concentration in these
dose peaks and dose valleys and to 

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measure the oxygen concentration during
radiation and then to see if the

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oxygen consumption does indeed differ
between the peaks and the troughs. 

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If I've understood that correctly, 
your research is very preclinical, 

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so far away from clinical application, 

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so why do we need your research? 
As you said,

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it's preclinical, which means it takes place in the laboratory
and has not yet arrived in the clinical routine. 

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I have shown in the research on this irradiation method, 
which has also been done by

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many different researchers,
compared to conventional methods,

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the tumor is still controlled just as well, but
the healthy tissue around it is actually better

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protected and that leads to the fact that the
patient's treatment outcome is definitely better

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and that is always desirable. The
problem or the difficulty, let's say,

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is that the mechanisms behind why it
is so, are not yet fully understood and that

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is why it is so important to continue research. 
We have always prepared the radiotherapy process here.

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So, from immobilization to
the actual radiation treatment. 

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I can imagine where you would locate your research.

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But: where would you locate your research?
So it would actually be at the point where I'm at during the

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actual radiation treatment but more
in the future when it's part of the daily clinic routine

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because before all this can take place in the clinic,

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cell experiments have to be carried out first, and
then patient studies, and before that, animal experiments.

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until everything is approved until it
can be used at some point. 

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You said at the beginning that you are just at the end of your
Master's thesis. Do you have any tips for other

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students who are at the beginning of their Master's thesis
how can you deal with such a stressful phase

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at the end of the thesis? Yes, as you say, it is
quite a stressful phase, that's true.

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You also just can't quite avoid it. What
actually helped me is that I used to

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started writing and sent it 
early to people who proofread it

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and then I didn't quite get into it 
as much as I wanted to in the end. 

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Okay and what interested you most about

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medical physics? What would you say to 
young people who are now considering 

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medical physics for their study? I think
it's super interesting here and it's great that it's

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very interdisciplinary. That means you
learn a lot and can apply your research. 

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What I generally like about the
field is that it's so practical,

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that you really feel what you're working on 
will eventually be applied

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in the clinic and maybe helps
patients. I think that's a nice

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thought.[music]