The Modern Technology of Radiation Oncology, Vol 4, eBook
Author: Jacob Van Dyk, EditorISBN: 9781951134037
Published: 2020 September | | eBook
Price: $ 175.00
DOODY'S | 2021
Description
This book is Volume 4 in a series by the editor Jacob Van Dyk. As with the previous volumes, it covers technological and related topics about the current and future importance in the field of medical physics as it relates to radiation therapy. Each chapter has a focus on a specific topic, written by internationally recognized experts. The book is well organized and covers a wide spectrum of material that will appeal to a wide range of professionals in radiation oncology. Some of the topics range from new therapeutic and imaging devices to computational advancements such as automated treatment planning and artificial intelligence, to fundamental radiobiology, to clinical needs assessment and purchase considerations, as well as other areas. In my opinion, the book is well organized and has high significance in radiation therapy. It is an excellent continuation of the Modern Technology of Radiation Therapy series.
Purpose
The Modern Technology of Radiation Therapy series is addressed to assist medical physicists and other professionals in radiation therapy in staying current with the rapid pace of technological advancement within the field. Jacob Van Dyk is a medical physicist with over 49 years of expertise in radiation therapy and he has done an excellent job of selecting topics for his books that hold high significance for medical physicists and radiation oncologists. Each of the four books in the series provides complete, up-to-date guidance on design, clinical needs assessment, purchase considerations, acceptance testing, commissioning, quality assurance, practical use, and other areas of relevance. The purpose of this book (Volume 4) is to provide updates about new technologies and developments in radiation therapy that have occurred since the last publication of Volume 3 in 2013.
Audience The book primarily targets professional medical physicists and radiation oncologists in the field of radiation therapy. It is also written at a level that can serve as an important teaching resource for graduate students and residents in medical physics, as well as dosimetrists and radiation therapists in training. Certain chapters cover the financial and economic considerations, which may be of special interest to the administrators affiliated with radiation therapy.
Features
The contents of the book consist of 18 chapters. Each chapter is devoted to a particular topic and the authors of the chapter are well established authorities on the topic. Each chapter is divided into sections, where the first section typically discusses the background of the topic before going into more specific details. There are colored and black and white photos along with graphs, tables, and equations. All of these are necessary tools to effectively convey the concepts in a scientific field such as medical physics. Chapter 1 is written by Jacob Van Dyk himself, and he provides motivation to the readers on how the advances in technology have shaped the field of radiation therapy over the years. In addition, this chapter provides a nice, unbiased overview of the impact of technology on radiation therapy and sets the stage for the readers on what is to come later in the book. Chapters 2 through 14 are mainly devoted to the recent scientific and technological advances in radiation therapy. These include the use of 3D optical surface guidance methods (chapter 2), PET/MRI and real-time MRI position monitoring (chapters 3 and 4), treatment planning and adaptive radiation therapy (chapters 5, 6, 7, and 9), computational methods such as artificial intelligence, big data, and radiomics (chapters 8, 10, and 11), radiobiological updates in particle therapy (chapter 13), and the use of nanoparticles (chapter 14). The book also has three chapters (chapters 15, 16, and 17) devoted to the financial and economic considerations in radiation therapy as well as global outreach and technology related to improving access to radiation therapy. Finally, the book concludes with an exciting and potential game changer in radiation therapy that involves the use of ultra-high-dose-rate irradiation and is termed "FLASH" (chapter 18).
Assessment
As technology advances due to innovations in science and engineering, so does the field of medical physics. A book such as this is needed to keep medical physicists, as well as other professionals in radiation therapy, abreast of the current and future developments in the field. Overall, the book is of high quality, and the authors of each chapter have done excellent work in terms of conveying the most pertinent aspects of each topic to the audience. The Modern Technology of Radiation Therapy series created by Jacob Van Dyk is something unique and is needed due to the rapid pace of change and the plethora of new information in our field that makes it often difficult to filter out what is significant. As with the previous books in this series, this book is an excellent addition. I am confident that it will be well received by the radiation therapy community.
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Weighted Numerical Score: 94 - 4 Stars!
Rodney Wiersma, PhD(University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine)