REMOTE - Towards clinical use of FLASH therapy

<!--HTML--><p><span><span><span>Delivering radiation therapy in milliseconds (FLASH therapy) instead of minutes (conventional radiotherapy) has been shown to spare normal tissues, while the effect on tumor is maintained the same. The magnitude of the benefit observed in pre-clinical studies prompted to its clinical translation.</span></span></span></p> <p><span><span><span>Among the pre-requisite for clinical transfer are the robustness and reproducibility of the phenomenon that will be first discussed. Then the potential clinical use will be envisaged addressing some key questions about the way of integrating FLASH in a clinical setting i.e. in large volumes of tissues, together with fractionated and high precision radiation delivery.</span></span></span></p> <p><span><span><span>All these aspects will be addressed during the presentation and represent important biological and technical challenges and potential limitations that need to be solved to optimally translate this outstanding biological observation into a new clinically meaningful tool</span></span></span></p> <p>&nbsp;</p> <p><span><span><span>Short bio:</span></span></span></p> <p class="MsoPlainText"><span><span><strong>Jean Bourhis</strong> was appointed head of radiation oncology at CHUV in September 2012. Prior to this, and since 2022, Prof. Bourhis was head of the radiation oncology Department of the Institut Gustave Roussy of Université Paris XI, one of the most important cancer centres in Europe. Always active in promoting translational and applied research, between 1998 and 2012 Prof. Bourhis led a research laboratory dedicated to radio-sensitivity of tumours and healthy tissues.</span></span></p> <p class="MsoPlainText"><span><span>Jean Bourhis is among the top international experts in radiation oncology. He is a founding member and president of GORTEC (Groupe d'Oncologie Radiothérapie Tête Et Cou or Head and Neck Oncology and Radiotherapy Group), established in 1999; he was the scientific director between 2008 and 2011 of the ARCHADE (Advanced Resource Center for Hadrontherapy in Europe) project, and has also been President of ESTRO (European Society of Radiation Oncology) from 2009 to 2011. </span></span></p> <p class="MsoPlainText"><span><span>Prof. Bourhis’ research aims at innovating and testing new therapies to enhance the anti-tumoural effect of irradiation, while at the same time lowering the damage to the healthy tissues. In particular, he is at the forefront in the domains of new targeted molecular therapies, combined with radiotherapy and with FLASH therapy. Most of this research is conducted at CHUV’s experimental radiotherapy facility, where different types of irradiation modes are available and can be tested on different experimental models of cancer and healthy tissues, with the goal of bringing innovation from the laboratory to the clinical practice.</span></span></p>