“Best Proposal in Medicine” award received by EORTC at the PTCOG 61 Conference

EORTC is proud to announce that we have received an award as the “Best Proposal in Medicine” of the Particle Therapy Cooperation Group (PTCOG), recognising the importance of our upcoming 2024 workshop in the context of the H2020 project-HTx.

Since 2019, EORTC leads the Oncology Case Study of the H2020 project-HTx to deliver solutions to select patients with head and neck cancer who are most likely to benefit from proton therapy. We developed models that predict the likelihood for a particular patient to develop side effects (e.g. xerostomia/dysphagia) under photon-or proton-therapy. If prediction shows that proton therapy reduces the risk of side effects beyond a predefined clinically relevant threshold, the patient is selected to receive proton therapy. Meanwhile, we project this patient selection approach to a population level to see how much gain/loss the society would expect.

Proton therapy has been particularly applied to patients with head and neck cancer to reduce risks of treatment-related side effects such as dysphagia and xerostomia. As proton therapy is a resource-demanding treatment modality with limited capacity, it is crucial to identify patients who will benefit the most from proton therapy.

Dr. Lifang Liu, EORTC Scientific Lead of the project received the award during the PTCOG 61 Conference in Madrid, 10-16 June 2023:

“At EORTC, we have always put patients at the centre of all we do. This workshop represents precisely that principle: bringing science to the daily work of doctors and policymakers thereby supporting evidence-based decision-making and resulting in a better survival and quality of life for patients.”

Click here to learn more about EORTC’s involvement in the HTx Project Consortium.