Welcome to XCITE Lab!
Welcome to the website of the X-ray Cancer Imaging and Therapy Experimental (XCITE) Lab at the University of Victoria. We investigate novel x-ray imaging modalities and x-ray radiation therapy techniques.
The goal of our research is threefold. First, we aim to improve cancer detection by proposing and thoroughly investigating emerging diagnostic x-ray imaging modalities. Second, we plan on improving outcomes of cancer radiation treatments by combining nanoparticle therapy and radiotherapy. Third, we strive to decrease the cost of radiation therapy by designing an economical radiotherapy source capable of treatments of a broad range of cancers.
On this website you learn about who we are, read upon our exciting research, and learn about the opportunities the XCITE Lab offers to you. Additionally, you get a chance to learn what the current XCITE Lab members are working on, read the latest XCITE Lab news, and browse through the list of our publications.
Do you find our projects intriguing or the XCITE Lab equipment useful for your research? If so, please do not hesitate to contact us. I hope you will either want to join our lab or initiate a fruitful collaboration with us! We especially welcome Indigenous students and students from marginalized groups.
Magdalena
Who are we?
We are an enthusiastic Medical Physics research group in the Department of Physics and Astronomy at the University of Victoria. Our goal is to advance cancer detection as well as improve outcomes of radiation therapy treatment. We plan to achieve these advancements by conducting unique research by means of computer simulations and experiments. Read on to find out more!
What do we do?
We focus our diagnostic imaging and radiation therapy research to the use of kilovoltage x-rays. We work on four main projects:
- commissioning and quality assurance procedures for small animal radiotherapy
- feasibility of kilovoltage arc therapy (KVAT) for treatments of deep seated tumors
- improvements of x-ray fluorescence computed tomography (XFCT) and photon-counting CT imaging
- investigations of FLASH and spatially-fractionated radiotherapy with an x-ray tube
Apart from these projects utilizing kilovoltage x-rays, our other work is on
- buliding a tunable 10 MV FLASH/spatially-fractionated beamline at TRIUMF
- megavoltage (MV) cone beam CT (CBCT) imaging for the use in radiotherapy in collaboration with Varian Medical
All projects consist of two stages. In the first part, extensive Monte Carlo simulations are performed in order to optimize the next experimental part. Our expertise lies in more than 10 years of experience running Monte Carlo simulations with the EGSnrc codes, however, we are fairly knowledgeable of other Monte Carlo codes, such as MCNPX and TOPAS. A large portion of our work is, however, experimental, and is conducted in our experimental lab.
What exactly is the XCITE Lab?
The X-ray Cancer Imaging and Therapy Experimental Lab is a table-top x-ray system designed for x-ray imaging and therapy experiments. It is a system consisting of an x-ray tube, x-ray imaging detectors (CsI and CZT), a number of low- and high-energy x-ray spectrometers, and rotation/translation stages for tomographic data acquisition. The system is used by our lab for x-ray fluorescence CT, photon-counting CT, kilovoltage arc therapy, FLASH, and dose-enhanced radiation therapy experiments. We are happy to share the time on the system with you, so please do not hesitate to contact us.
