Hannah Chamberlin (University of Manchester)
Radiotherapy is commonly used as part of curative treatment for many cancers, but late-effects due to the ionising radiation include greater risk of second cancers. For young women receiving radiotherapy to the chest for cancer such as lymphoma, their risk of developing breast cancer later in life is greater when compared to the general population. Enhanced breast screening for these women begins 8 years after radiotherapy treatment. However, all women currently receive the same breast screening regime, despite evidence that risk is dependent on multiple factors individual to the patient, such as radiotherapy dose received and age at treatment. My research focuses on image and data analysis of the treatment plans, including automatic delineation of breast tissue on the CT scans used for treatment planning and analysis of radiotherapy dose received to breast tissue, with the aim of advising development of individualised risk modelling for radiotherapy induced breast cancer.
