In September scores of people attended an address by Addenbrooke’s Hospital consultant medical microbiologist, Dr Nick Brown, who posed the question: “Is antibiotics resistance a crisis on the scale of climate change, or is it over-hyped?
This time, residents are invited to the William Harvey Lecture Theatre at the School of Clinical Medicine between 6.30pm and 7.30pm on Wednesday November 7, for an address by Cambridge academic radiation oncologist, Dr Raj Jena. Entrance is free.
Dr Jena and colleagues are using increasingly sophisticated ways to target cancer. In April he showed Prime Minister Theresa May the hospital’s new Novalis robotic radiosurgery system, which can be used as an alternative to surgery if a primary cancer spreads to the brain.
His thought-provoking lecture will discuss: “Accelerating radiation oncology treatment with cloud-based artificial intelligence.”
He explained: “Radiotherapy is an effective anti-cancer treatment that is received by over 2,000 patients at Addenbrooke’s every year. Preparation of precision radiotherapy treatment is a painstaking process for oncologists.
“For the last eight years, I have been collaborating with the InnerEye team at Microsoft Research Cambridge, to develop machine-learning applications to speed up the process.
“In the last 12 months, this technology has been integrated into our clinical pathway to assist clinicians and members of the radiotherapy department. From a research point of view, these tools represent the start of a new era of data-driven research in radiation therapy.”
Dr Raj Jena is also chief investigator of the Cancer Research VoxTox computational radiotherapy programme, an investigator at the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) and a founding member of the European Network for Light Ion Therapy.
Membership Services Administrator Pascale Lespeare said: “We are really delighted to again open our doors to the public are share with them some really exciting developments in the fight against cancer. We are expecting it to be very popular.”
Anyone interested in reserving a place should contact the NHS Foundation Trust Membership Office on 01223 256256 or email foundation.trust@addenbrookes.nhs.uk.
To learn about becoming a member, which is a way of learning about the and contributing to its success, visit https://www.cuh.nhs.uk/foundation-trust/about-membership
Image: Dr Jena meeting the Prime Minister, Theresa May.
About Cambridge University Hospitals
Cambridge University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust (CUH) is one of the largest and best known hospitals in the country, delivering high-quality patient care through Addenbrooke’s and the Rosie Hospitals. CUH is a leading national centre for specialist treatment for rare or complex conditions and a university teaching hospital with a worldwide reputation.
CUH is a key partner in Cambridge University Health Partners (CUHP), one of only six academic health science centres in the UK, and is at the heart of the development of the Cambridge Biomedical Campus (CBC), which brings together on one site world-class biomedical research, patient care and education. As part of the Campus development, Papworth Hospital is creating a bespoke, purpose-built hospital, and AstraZeneca is building a new global R&D centre and corporate headquarters. The Campus is one of the government’s National Institute for Health Research (NIHR) comprehensive biomedical research centres.