BY Megan McRainey
A Georgia Tech researcher's treatment system to kill tumor cells has won an international competition.
The Franz Edelman prize singles out the best operations research project by an organization that has transformed companies, entire industries and people's lives.
Eva K. Lee, an associate professor in the H. Milton Stewart School of Industrial and Systems Engineering, worked with Marco Zaider, head of brachytherapy physics at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center, to devise sophisticated optimization modeling and computational techniques to implement an intra-operative 3-D treatment planning system for brachytherapy (the placement of radioactive "seeds" inside a tumor) that offers a safer and more reliable treatment.
Lee's optimization models and algorithms guide doctors toward the most effective dose provided by each radioactive seed, the shape of the organ being treated, the locations of tumor cells within the organ and critical structures for which radiation dose should be limited, the sensitivity of tissues to radiation and the expected shrinkage of the organ after treatment. The system's goal is to provide consistent tumor-killing radiation doses to the tumor cells while limiting potentially damaging doses to nearby critical structures.
"The system can be used in real time," Lee said. "The patient can come in, the imaging is done and we can then do the planning and implantation right away. There is no delay between the imaging, planning and implantation of the seeds."
The real-time intra-operative planning system eliminates preoperative simulation and post-implant imaging analysis. Based on the range of costs of these procedures, Lee estimates conservatively that their elimination nationwide could save on the order of $450 million a year for prostate cancer care alone.
The patented system is based on optimization techniques known as mixed integer programming. It was licensed to Prowess in 2004 and converted to a commercial product. Prowess added the new algorithms to treatment planning systems it already has in operation at more than 700 clinics in the United States.
Beyond prostate cancer therapy, the mixed-integer algorithms also can be used to optimize radioactive seed and external beam radiation treatment for a broad range of other cancers.
With support from the National Science Foundation, National Institutes of Health and Whitaker Foundation, Lee also has been working with medical specialists on improving treatments for breast, lung, cervical, brain and liver cancers.
"The cancer instances are really hard to solve, and our team has worked very hard in advancing the algorithmic frontier. Now we can use this in many different applications and it works very well for improving local tumor control," Lee said. "I feel really good about seeing this applied in the clinic to improve treatment to patients."
This year's Franz Edelman finalists included Coca-Cola, the U.S. Coast Guard, Hewlett-Packard and Daimler-Chrysler. Past winners have included Motorola, Merrill Lynch, Canadian Pacific Railway and IBM.
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