TAHNIAH PROF. MADYA DR. MOHD HAFIZ MOHD ZIN RUTRANS 2024

Breast cancer is the most common cancer among women in Malaysia and contributing to one for every five new cancer cases diagnosed in Malaysia. The typical survival rate for breast cancer in developed countries has improved to around 90 % and can be largely be attributed to advances in treatment and screening. As survival rates improve, it becomes increasingly important to monitor the long-term health of breast cancer survivors. In particular, receipt of radiotherapy for left breast cancer has been shown to be an important contributor to radiation side effects including ischemic heart disease due to the close provimity of heart to the irradiated breast. There is a significantly higher incidence of coronary artery disease for left breast cancer women (18.7%) compared to the right side (6.8%). While there has been increased awareness about these unintended toxicities, there are still questions about how to optimise treatments to reduce their occurrence.

Project 1: Therefore, it is important to examine the impact of the evolution of treatment technology and practice on the dose delivered using machine learning. For instance, using segmentation of organs from CT imaging it is possible to find an association between heart dose and cardiac morbidity in patients treated using machine learning approach.

Project 2: Furthermore, delivery of the targeted treatment using specialised technique such as deep-inspiration breath hold (DIBH) allows large reduction in dose contributing to the side-effects, but consistency in the delivery remains a big obstacle in achieving this. Therefore, an optical imaging system will be optimised for tracking the patient in real-time and to improve the accuracy and consistency in the delivery of radiation in project 2.

Project 3: The study also will look into the abscopal effect from the targeted treatment in project 3. The effect is rarely investigated in this targeted treatment approach and can also help with improving treatment outcomes especially in country where the survival rate of breast cancer patient is lower than the developed countries due to late diagnosis and advanced cancer stage.