A research team affiliated with the Centre de recherche du CHU de Québec – Université Laval and the Faculty of Science and Engineering developed an innovative solution to optimize brachytherapy treatments for cancer patients. 

The research team, led by Professor Luc Beaulieu, has developed a new multi-criterion algorithm capable of simultaneously analyzing thousands of curative dose distribution scenarios in seconds.

With the help of new technologies based on graphics processors, medical teams will be able to offer patients a better treatment plan adapted to their situation and find the best compromise between therapeutic efficacy and the preservation of at-risk organs.

“This is the next major step in optimizing radiotherapy treatment,” emphasizes Professor Beaulieu, researcher in the Oncology division.

This technology could reduce side effects and improve the patient’s quality of life by enabling finer, faster adjustments of treatments. Researchers can, for example, examine the consequences of increasing the doses administered to a cancerous tumour on at-risk organs.

A Big Step Forward in Treatment

Brachytherapy is a form of radiotherapy that delivers high doses of radiation directly to a tumour while minimizing exposure to nearby at-risk organs. It is often used to treat prostate or cervical cancer.

Currently, the equipment used in hospitals by radiotherapy technologists and medical physicists requires manual calculations and frequent adjustments to personalize dose delivery and duration for each patient.

“Thanks to our new analysis method, we found we were getting much better treatment plans for our patients, with even higher accuracy. In a retrospective study comparing old and new plans, our care teams preferred the new treatment plans 95% of the time,” adds Professor Beaulieu.

The software also plans to use artificial intelligence to exhaustively analyze all possible scenarios to select the most appropriate treatment for each patient according to geometry and medical criteria.

Promising results and a partnership with Elekta

Initially developed by doctoral student Cédric Bélanger, the gMCO-GUI algorithm is the fruit of several years of collaborative work. It involved numerous experts in medical physics, computer science, and oncology within Professor Beaulieu’s team.

The software is now the subject of a strategic partnership with the Swedish company Elekta, which specializes in marketing and distributing radiation oncology equipment. Integration of the algorithm is underway and should join the Elekta ecosystem within the next few years.

This collaboration marks a crucial step towards modernizing brachytherapy treatments. By providing healthcare professionals with more precise and effective tools, this technology promises to significantly improve clinical outcomes for cancer patients while making practitioners’ work easier.

Luc Beaulieu (left) with Cédric Bélanger (right) during his thesis defense
See all news and activities