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Welcome everyone to another interview in

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Medical Physics here at the German

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Cancer Research Center. In this video we

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are going to meet Pamela. She is a PhD

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student here in the Division of Medical

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Physics in Radiation Oncology. I'm here

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on the second floor of the building

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Imaging and Radiation Oncology. On this

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floor all the students, PhD

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students or Post-Docs have their offices.

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So, let's go and meet Pamela. 

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Hello,how are you? Fine and you? 

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Good! Nice to meet you. Thanks for

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your time. I've just

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briefly introduced yourself that you are

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a PhD student here at the German Cancer

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Research Center but could you just tell

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us a bit more about yourself. Sure.

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I'm coming from Colombia. I did my

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Bachelor in Physics in Colombia and I

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also did my Master there and then I

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decide to come here to pursue my PhD. 

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But why did you select the DKFZ to do

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your PhD? Well, that is a long story. When

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I was starting my master program in

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Colombia I contacted the director of the

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program asking for some advice to go

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abroad to do an internship and then she

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sent me some names for some professors

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that she knows and this is the reason

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why I came here. Some professor here at

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the DKFZ replied to my email and invited me

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for the intership. Then I came back after

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the intership to do my master thesis

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project and being here knowing the

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nice facilities that we have here, the

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huge medical physics department at

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the DKFZ, I decide to apply for the PHD

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international program and I'm here in my

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third year of the PhD. Okay so you are more or

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less at the end of your PhD. 

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But could you just tell us a bit more

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about your project. Sure. Maybe we

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can walk to the poster and I can 

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explain it there. 

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So, this is one of my posters and

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the idea of our project is to

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monitoring the course of a carbon ion

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treatment plan. The idea is to see if

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there are changes that have occurred

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inside of the patient between days of

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the treatment because a treatment plan

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could least 30 days and many

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anatomical changes could occur. 

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For instance if the patient gets sick and

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have some flu and then the cavities in

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the face that were empty at the

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beginning of the treatment then are

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filled with for instance mocos how we do

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that we can escort or detect the

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fragments that are produced between the

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primary beam that in this case is the

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carbon ion with the tissue the

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patient and then the secondary fragments

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or these particles exit and are detected

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by these set of detectors that we have

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here outside. 

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The main part of my project was

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to integrate

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this what we are seeing in the

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treatment room inside of a software, of a

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program that is capable of simulate the

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interaction of the particles with the

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human tissue and the idea for us is to be

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able in this program that is a virtual

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world

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to study things that we cannot study in

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the experimental part or in the

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treatment room. 

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Okay, that sounds really interesting

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about your research. Let's go to the

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radiotherapy chain we have prepared this

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clinical workflow for patients.

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Where would you locate your research

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more at the beginning or more at the end? 

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We are at the end of

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the chain. We are here in the

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quality assurance and

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verification chain. 

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What I do is I simulate the

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treatment

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plan and then I study what is happening

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during the treatment plan and at the

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end my the results of the simulations

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that I perform are in the quality

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assurance and verification

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part. As you explained or showed to us

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your research is based on particle

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therapy but why isn't particle therapy

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available to everyone? Well, there are

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many consideration in that regards

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but I would say that there are three

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main considerations. The first one is

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that comparing with radiotherapy with

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conventional radiotherapy, particle

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therapy is a quite new therapy. It has

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been available for the public just

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around 1.5 decades ago comparing with a

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conventional radiotherapy that has been

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available since eight decades ago more

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or less briefly. 

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It is a young therapy. 

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Exactly. The second part is that is a

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very expensive therapy. Installing,

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implementing and maintaining a particle

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therapy center is very expensive

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comparing with a conventional

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radiotherapy center

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The third part is that there

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is still clinical evidence needed to

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show that particle therapy has more or

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the same advantages for other type of

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tumors that are still treated with

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conventional radiotherapy

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If we think about

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developing countries where the early

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diagnosis or prevention programs or

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treatment is difficult to access

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to and it's challenging for the

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countries mainly because of

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money. Now imagine, 

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implementing treatment at a particle

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therapy center there. So then

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it's really challenging to run such a

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device there. Yes, and if you ask me

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the governments, the healthcare system

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and the public policies should establish

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and ensure that all people that needs

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the treatment can get it and if you have

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a limitated

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budget the money should be distributed

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to cover as many people as it can be. 

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Having the last months or years of

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research in mind what was the most

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fascinating part for you? Well, there were

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many fascinating parts. I would say

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the one is to witnesses the evolution

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of a project that start with an idea,

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with a concept from the theory to now  

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phase of the project that we are

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running a clinical trial at the Heidelberg

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Ion-Beam Therapy Center. The second part

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is to work in an

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multicultural and a multidisciplinary

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team and also how all the parts that are

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involved in this project that are for me

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are like parts of the puzzle we are 

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putting together because in this project

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we have the industry

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part, we have the clinical part, we have

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the theory behind that is a pure physics,

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and then put it all those three 

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elements together for me has been

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fascinated. It sounds very

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fascinating. I can imagine how

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challenging it is to bring all 

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parts together in one project.That's

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very interesting. Do you have any

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advice to young students why should they

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enter Medical Physics or at least

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why should they consider

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Medical Physics as a topic of their

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study? Well, 

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if they are

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curious and if are they're willing to

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study something that they can apply and

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they can see results they can't in this

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case help to treat or cure cancer

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cancer patients this is a field to come.

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So, I invite all of you also something

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that maybe students doesn't know is

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that in many countries Medical Physics

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is not a bachelor it's a study

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that happens after the Bachelor or even

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after the Masters. And it's also a

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field that many people from different

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fields can come and then contribute to

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the field. In this building here we have

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physicists, biologists, computer

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scientists, doctors, radiooncologists and

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many others that maybe even I don't

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know. So it's a really

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interdisciplinary field and that's I

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think also very interesting then on this

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side. It is, it is, and if I guess it's

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quite challenging to know exactly

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what to study right after for instance

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high school so I also encourage the

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students to don't give up. Just keep

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going and start looking around what they

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really fits while they are in their

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studies.