Plenary Professor Romeijn
Title:
Optimization of radiation therapy treatment plans
Abstract:
During radiation therapy, beams of radiation pass through a patient. This radiation kills both cancerous and normal cells, so the radiation therapy must be carefully planned to deliver a clinically prescribed dose to certain targets while sparing nearby organs and tissues. Currently, a technique called intensity modulated radiation therapy (IMRT) is considered to be the most effective radiation therapy for many forms of cancer. In IMRT, the patient is irradiated from several different directions. From each direction, one or more irregularly shaped radiation beams of uniform intensity are used to deliver the treatment. In this talk, we provide an overview of the state-of-the-art of optimization models for static radiation therapy treatment planning. In addition, we discussion recent and ongoing technological developments which show that this area of research is a lively and promising one that can continue to help patients by improving the clinical practice of radiation therapy.
Biography:
Edwin Romeijn's general research area is optimization theory and applications. His recent research activities mainly deal with systems arising in radiation therapy treatment planning and supply chain management. In radiation therapy treatment planning, the main goal is to develop new models and algorithms for efficiently determining effective (i) treatment plans for cancer patients who are treated using radiation therapy, and (ii) treatment schedules for radiation therapy clinics. In supply chain optimization, his main interests are in the integrated optimization of production, inventory, and transportation processes, in particular in the presence of demand flexibility, limited resources, perishability, and uncertainty. Before joining The University of Michigan in 2008 he was on the faculty of the Department of Industrial and Systems Engineering at the University of Florida and the Rotterdam School of Management at the Erasmus University Rotterdam in The Netherlands. He is the author of seventy peer reviewed publications.