Webinar
Radiation cancer treatment during conflict: what we can learn from the war?
( Presented to a full capacity 100 Health Professionals, Monday June 27 2022)
The Speakers
- Natalka Suchowerska, Associate Professor, Director of VectorLAB, University of Sydney
- Ruslan Zelinskyi, Head of Medical Physics Department, Spizhenko Clinic, Ukraine
- Nataliya Kovalchuk, Clinical Associate Professor, Radiation Oncology, Stanford University, USA
What happens to cancer patients in war?
The Russian invasion of Ukraine in February 2022 saw health care facilities, including dedicated cancer centres with radiation equipment, being damaged or destroyed. The war follows almost a decade of conflict in east Ukraine, which created significant challenges to Ukraine’s healthcare system.
What happens to radiation facilities?
The Russian invasion of Ukraine in February 2022 has seen health care facilities, including dedicated cancer care infrastructure with radiation equipment, being damaged or destroyed. The war follows almost a decade of conflict in east Ukraine which created significant challenges to Ukraine’s healthcare system.
What happens to radiation facilities?
Prior to the conflict, Ukraine had 55 functional cancer care centres, 52 of which provided radiotherapy with 106 radiation treatment units. Of these over 80% were cobalt units using radioactive sources. The Ukrainian Ministry of Health was in the process of replacing the Cobalt units with modern linear accelerators. When Russia annexed part of Ukraine in 2014, control of 10 radiotherapy centres with 17 external beam radiation therapy machines was lost. In 2022 with the onset of large-scale war the arterial and aerial bombing of hospital sites affected electricity supply, internet connection and caused vibration and structural movement, all factors which significantly impact imaging and treatment delivery. In the demolished hospital in Mariupol, the fate of the Cobalt unit with an active source is not currently known.
The conflict in Ukraine has revealed how Russia’s war on Ukraine has affected cancer services and radiation safety. The webinar discusses the cancer patient-centred solutions that have been implemented, some of which are in collaboration with a rapidly responding multidisciplinary and international community.
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For this Better Heallthcare Technology Foundation’s Topical Lecture, A/Prof. Natalka Suchowerska assembled first-hand witness statements from radiation oncologists, medical physicists, radiation therapists from a range of centres in Ukraine. This primary source evidence shows the initial shock of invasion on a peaceful society and the realisation that as medical professionals, they are being called to lead. Challenges of how to move forward as conditions deteriorate identifies the broader scope of what it means to be a 360 medical professional, in a way rarely witnessed.
About our Speakers
A/Prof Natalka Suchowerska’s work is at the junction of research, the clinic and academia. In medical physics her area of expertise is in the use of ionising radiation in medicine. Recently her team have embarked on a new research programme developing the 3D printing of PAEK scaffolds and their bio-functionalization for bone replacement. She is an award-winning physicist, reviewer for several prestigious international journals in the fields of Medicine and Physics, presents at international conferences and was the Scientific co-chair (Physics) of the inaugural ESTRO meets ASIA conference 2018. Natalka holds positions on several national and international committees. Her team was the first to establish three classes of bystander response following therapeutic irradiation, for which they were awarded the Roberts Prize for the best paper in PMB 2007. Natalka has led and developed many successful research collaborations, secured patents and in 2016 was nominated in the Top 100 Women of Influence sponsored by the Australian Financial Review in the category of Innovation. For 2021, A/Prof Natalka Suchowerska is honoured to be awarded ESTRO Honorary Membership for contribution to innovation in medical physics and in realising multidisciplinary and international collaborations.
Natalka has a Ukrainian heritage and was educated in UK and Australia.
Ruslan Zelinskyi is head of the Medical Physics Department in the Spizhenko Clinic, specialising in cancer treatment. The centre operates with a Cyberknife, Elekta Synergy Platform, Elekta Versa HD (2021), XiO, Multi Plan and Monaco 5.51 and Mosaiq R&V Ruslan is also the inaugural President of the Ukrainian Association of Medical Physicists (UAMP).
After obtaining a BSc degree in pedagogical education and an MSc in Nuclear and Elementary Particle Physics he began his career in radiotherapy medical physics. In parallel with clinical activities, Ruslan has actively pursued the development of the medical physics profession in Ukraine. In particular, he co-founded the Ukrainian Association of Medical Physicists and the annual Scientific and Practical meeting, “Forum of Medical Physicists of Ukraine”. Ruslan represents the medical physics profession as an expert on the Working Group of the State Inspectorate for Nuclear Regulation of Ukraine and to the Ministry of Health of Ukraine.
Dr Andriy Ganytch is a radiation oncologist, head of the Radiology Department of the Mariupol Oncology Dispensary. After graduating from Donetsk State Medical University in 2002, he specialised in the treatment of malignant tumors with radiation alone and in combination with other treatments. The Mariupol Oncology Dispensary was the main city hospital, responsible for providing service to a population of 800,000 until March 2022, when the infrastructure was destroyed.
Dr Ganytch has a specific interest in improving existing radiation treatment systems to achieve better quality treatment in environments with limited financial resources (city hospital), by implementing 3D-visualization and 3D-printing methods, to develop a software driven semi automated clinical dosimetry platforms. Dr Ganytch is also working on the mathematical modeling of cell events caused by radiation exposure in order to integrate the effects into future radiation therapy planning systems.
Nataliya Kovalchuk, is a Medical Physicist at Stanford Radiation Oncology Department and Clinical Associate Professor at Stanford University. Dr. Kovalchuk received her therapeutic medical physics training at Mayo Clinic and worked at Massachusetts General Hospital/Boston Medical Center and Harvard Medical School. In 2015, she joined Stanford Radiation Oncology department and is currently employed as and Clinical Associate Professor at Stanford and Adjunct Associate Professor at MD Anderson. Nataliya is a lead on Head and Neck National Radiotherapy Group physics committee and is a member of Children Oncology Group Total Body Irradiation physics committee. Her research work is concentrated on improving outcomes and lives for pediatric patients by modernizing conventional Total Body Irradiation techniques, automating radiotherapy treatment planning, and investigating novel biology-guided radiotherapy techniques. Since the full-scale Russian invasion of Ukraine, Nataliya directed her efforts to helping Ukraine as part of a group of volunteers with Ukrainian roots, practicing oncology in the USA.
