Dr Linh Tran
School of Physics

Innovation in radiation detector technologies for cancer treatment is leading to new and more effective treatment approaches

Developing tools to help doctors accurately measure how much radiation is given to a cancer patient during treatment and rapidly deploying them into the clinical setting keeps Dr Linh Tran busy.

Dr Tran is part of a team at the Centre for Medical Radiation Physics (CMRP), which already has a number of treatment enhancing devices and patents under its belt. Dr Tran has been central to a number of projects and experiments related to radiation therapy. Currently, Dr Tran’s focus is the research and development of silicon radiation detection devices for microdosimetry to improve the accuracy of radiation dosages.

“My research helps improve the quality of cancer treatment using protons and heavy ions. These types of radiation therapy are particularly beneficial for young patients,” Dr Tran says.

“The silicon detectors are used to predict the radiobiological effect of radiation on a patient treated with charged particle radiation therapy, such as with protons or heavy ions, allowing better dose planning and accurate treatment,” Dr Tran explains.

Dr Tran received her PhD in medical radiation physics at the CMRP in 2014 after working as a researcher at the Vietnam Atomic Energy Institute in Hanoi. Following her PhD she took up a position as a joint postdoctoral fellow at CMRP and the Australian Nuclear Science and Technology Organisation.

In 2015 Dr Tran was invited to the Mayo Clinic in Rochester in Minnesota and the Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston to collaborate on research at a proton pencil beam scanning therapy facility using radiation detectors developed by the CMRP.

Dr Tran has undertaken research exchanges with world-leading experts, including Professor Naruhiro Matsufuji from the National Institute of Radiological Science in Chiba, Japan. Dr Tran is also working with researchers in Norway at the Microsystems and Nanotechnology Facility at the University of Oslo.

Dr Tran is committed to using her knowledge and skills to benefit cancer patients and her attitude toward research into improved treatment tools. Her quest to develop an advanced silicon radiation detection device could completely change the radiation therapy landscape.