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Overview
Radiation Oncology: A Physicist's-Eye View was written for both physicists and medical oncologists with the aim of helping them approach the used of radiation in the treatment of cancer with understanding, confidence, and imagination. The book will let practitioners in one field understand the problems of, and find solutions for, practitioners in the other. It will help them to know "why" certain approaches are fruitful while, at the same time, encouraging them to ask the question "Why not?" in the face of assertions that some proposal of theirs is impractical, unreasonable, or impossible. Unlike a textbook, formal and complete developments of the topics are not among the goals. Instead, the reader will develop a foundation for understanding what the author has found to be matters of importance in radiation oncology during over thirty years of experience. Presentations cover, in largely non-technical language, the principal physical and biological aspects of radiation treatment and address practical clinical considerations in planning and delivering therapy. The importance of the assessment of uncertainties is emphasized. Topics include: an overview of the physics of the interactions of radiation with matter; the definition of the goals and the design of radiation therapy approaches; living with uncertainty; biophysical models of radiation damage; computer-based optimization of treatments; and proton therapy. Formulae and quantitation in general have been avoided in the belief that an understanding of the majority of important medical and biological issues in radiation oncology generally cannot be achieved through mathematical relationships. This unique and highly readable book will be indispensable both to beginners and to those with experience in either medical physics or radiation oncology.
The author, who is Professor of Radiation Oncology Emeritus at Harvard Medical School, was an early pioneer in the development of image-based treatment planning and has been responsible for developing and putting into clinical practice such widely used tools as: digitally reconstructed radiographs, dose-volume histograms, and beam's-eye view and has been a leader in the development of proton beam therapy.
Synopsis
Radiation Oncology: A Physicist's-Eye View was written for both physicists and medical oncologists with the aim of helping them approach the use of radiation in the treatment of cancer with understanding, confidence, and imagination. The book will let practitioners in one field understand the problems of, and find solutions for, practitioners in the other. It will help them to know "why" certain approaches are fruitful while, at the same time, encouraging them to ask the question "Why not?" in the face of assertions that some proposal of theirs is impractical, unreasonable, or impossible. Unlike a textbook, formal and complete developments of the topics are not among the goals. Instead, the reader will develop a foundation for understanding what the author has found to be matters of importance in radiation oncology during over thirty years of experience. Presentations cover, in largely non-technical language, the principal physical and biological aspects of radiation treatment and address practical clinical considerations in planning and delivering therapy. The importance of the assessment of uncertainties is emphasized. Topics include: an overview of the physics of the interactions of radiation with matter; the definition of the goals and the design of radiation therapy approaches; living with uncertainty; biophysical models of radiation damage; computer-based optimization of treatments; and proton therapy. Formulae and quantitation in general have been avoided in the belief that an understanding of the majority of important medical and biological issues in radiation oncology generally cannot be achieved through mathematical relationships. This unique and highly readable book will be indispensable both to beginners and to those with experience in either medical physics or radiation oncology.
The author, who is Professor of Radiation Oncology Emeritus at Harvard Medical School, was an early pioneer in the development of image-based treatment planning and has been responsible for developing and putting into clinical practice such widely used tools as: digitally reconstructed radiographs, dose-volume histograms, and beam’s-eye view and has been a leader in the development of proton beam therapy.
Editorials
From The Critics
Reviewer: Bruce R Thomadsen, Ph.D.(University of Wisconsin-Madison)Description: This book discusses the physical as well as some of the radiobiological aspects of radiation oncology in an accessible manner for those not in the field.
Purpose: The goal is to provide information on radiation oncology, particularly the physics of radiation oncology, in a simplified manner.
Audience: The audience would be physicians who do not work in radiation oncology or other scientists who have an interest in the field and would like a better understanding of the physical aspects of the discipline. There certainly is a place for this book. In my practice, I frequently have medical students, undergraduates, engineering students, and sometimes high school students work with me who come with no background in radiation physics. They would like to have a book that explains the physics concisely, and not in the depth of the heavy-duty textbooks.
Features: The author writes in a conversational, folksy style. ("Folksy" is hardly a word I would expect to use for the usually urbane, and urban, Dr. Goitein.) He does a very good job of expressing almost all of the important concepts of radiation oncology physics in an easy to understand, albeit abbreviated, manner. His proclivities shape the organization of the book, starting not with the traditional, "This is an atom," but with a discussion of uncertainties. He reserves discussion of matter and radiation characteristics until designing a treatment beam, when it becomes relevant. He includes two chapters on proton therapy and never ventures into the world of brachytherapy, again reflecting his main interests. One might think that Dr. Goitein was the main driving force in developing radiotherapy physics since he is an author on 37 of the 133 references cited. A little more editorial combing of the text would have been useful, eliminating such minor slips as citing the third edition of Mould's Introduction to Medical Statistics (1998) on page 13, but listing the second edition (1988) in the references, or stating that the unit of dose is "Gray" with a capital G (which is actually only in the capital when abbreviated). However, the editorial problems remain minor and unimportant to the reader's understanding. Most of Dr. Goitein's editorial comments and opinions are properly preceded by statements alerting the reader that what follows are just that. For the most part, the opinions offered are firmly founded.
Assessment: I will keep this book around and use it to provide the naive student with a working understanding of radiotherapy physics from the physicist's perspective. While not a book from which medical physicists would learn their radiotherapy physics, we medical physicists comprise a small part of those who come through the department's doors.