Medical physics aspects of cancer care in the Asia Pacific region: 2011 survey results.

BACKGROUND: Medical physicists are essential members of the radiation oncology team. Given the increasing complexity of radiotherapy delivery, it is important to ensure adequate training and staffing. The aim of the present study was to update a similar survey from 2008 and assess the situation of medical physicists in the large and diverse Asia Pacific region. METHODS: Between March and July 2011, a survey on profession and practice of radiation oncology medical physicists (ROMPs) in the Asia Pacific region was performed. The survey was sent to senior physicists in 22 countries. Replies were received from countries that collectively represent more than half of the world's population. The survey questions explored five areas: education, staffing, work patterns including research and teaching, resources available, and job satisfaction. RESULTS AND DISCUSSION: Compared to a data from a similar survey conducted three years ago, the number of medical physicists in participating countries increased by 29% on average. This increase is similar to the increase in the number of linear accelerators, showing that previously identified staff shortages have yet to be substantially addressed. This is also highlighted by the fact that most ROMPs are expected to work overtime often and without adequate compensation. While job satisfaction has stayed similar compared to the previous survey, expectations for education and training have increased somewhat. This is in line with a trend towards certification of ROMPs. CONCLUSION: As organisations such as the International Labour Organization (ILO) start to recognise medical physics as a profession, it is evident that despite some encouraging signs there is still a lot of work required towards establishing an adequately trained and resourced medical physics workforce in the Asia Pacific region.

Medical physics aspects of cancer care in the Asia Pacific region.

Medical physics plays an essential role in modern medicine. This is particularly evident in cancer care where medical physicists are involved in radiotherapy treatment planning and quality assurance as well as in imaging and radiation protection. Due to the large variety of tasks and interests, medical physics is often subdivided into specialties such as radiology, nuclear medicine and radiation oncology medical physics. However, even within their specialty, the role of radiation oncology medical physicists (ROMPs) is diverse and varies between different societies. Therefore, a questionnaire was sent to leading medical physicists in most countries/areas in the Asia/Pacific region to determine the education, role and status of medical physicists.Answers were received from 17 countries/areas representing nearly 2800 radiation oncology medical physicists. There was general agreement that medical physicists should have both academic (typically at MSc level) and clinical (typically at least 2 years) training. ROMPs spent most of their time working in radiotherapy treatment planning (average 17 hours per week); however radiation protection and engineering tasks were also common. Typically, only physicists in large centres are involved in research and teaching. Most respondents thought that the workload of physicists was high, with more than 500 patients per year per physicist, less than one ROMP per two oncologists being the norm, and on average, one megavoltage treatment unit per medical physicist.There was also a clear indication of increased complexity of technology in the region with many countries/areas reporting to have installed helical tomotherapy, IMRT (Intensity Modulated Radiation Therapy), IGRT (Image Guided Radiation Therapy), Gamma-knife and Cyber-knife units. This and the continued workload from brachytherapy will require growing expertise and numbers in the medical physics workforce. Addressing these needs will be an important challenge for the future.

Fetal neocortical transplants grafted into cortical lesion cavities made in newborn rats receive multiple host afferents. A retrograde fluorescent tracer analysis.

Several reports have demonstrated efferent projections from fetal neocortical transplants placed in the cerebral cortex of newborn rats. Fewer studies have examined transplant afferents, and these have primarily used techniques based on the axonal transport of horseradish peroxidase. In the present study, we extend these initial findings on transplant afferent connections by using retrogradely transported fluorescent dyes to demonstrate a topographic and more extensive pattern of cortical transplant afferents than has been previously reported. Fetal neocortical tissue was grafted into frontal cortical lesion cavities made by aspiration in newborn rats. At 1.5-10 months later, the fluorescent dyes Fast blue and Diamidino yellow were injected into the transplants. Subsequent histological analysis demonstrated numerous retrogradely labeled fluorescent neurons within the host thalamus and cerebral cortex as well as several other areas of the host brain. The neurons were primarily single-labeled and generally found in areas that normally project to the ablated area of the cortex. The topographic distribution of retrograde labeling in several animals with non-overlapping dye injections confined to the transplants suggests that the host projections were distributed selectively within the grafts. These results support and extend previous studies suggesting the use of fetal neocortical tissue in repair of the neonatally damaged central nervous system.