A pioneer in radiation therapy research
Retiring Cancer Institute NSW Academic Chair, Associate Professor Jenny Cox, has seen more than her fair share of change in the profession.
Jenny has been an academic in radiation therapy research for the
past 20 years, but when she started out, it looked very different
to now.
"The field was a completely blank slate," she says. "So blank
that I had to start by defining for myself what exactly was the
radiation therapist research domain.
"The highlight was my graduation as the first Australian
radiation therapist with a PhD in the field," Jenny recalls. "I say
'in the field' as a few had moved to other professions and gained
PhDs, but my achievement was to bring research into my own
profession.
"We had always been very good at problem-solving; for example,
when a patient with a tumour in an unusual location presented a
stabilisation or positioning problem, but we had not done any
systematic research. So I looked at all the functions in the
department of radiation oncology and identified those that related
specifically to the radiation therapist.
"These were, broadly, patient positioning and stabilisation;
localisation of the tumour volume; treatment planning and dose
calculation; and patient care and support."
These factors prompted Jenny to focus her PhD research on the
positioning of patients for radiotherapy for prostate cancer
however she quickly learned that completing her PhD would be more
difficult than she first thought.
Jenny found there were no experienced radiation therapists to
supervise her research.
"No radiation therapists in Australia had PhDs at the time,"
explains Jenny. "So I struggled for a while until I found a
physicist, Dr Alastair Davison, who could be broad-minded enough to
recognise the value of radiation therapist research."
My achievement was to bring research into
my own profession...
Looking back over her career, Jenny reflects that departments of
radiation oncology in Australia are now much less paternalistic
than when she started out, with radiation therapists considered
important members of the team.
"It is now common in most departments for radiation therapists
to contribute to departmental research projects," she says. "These
might be Australasia-wide clinical trials, such as those run by
TROG (the Tasman Radiation Oncology Group), local protocol
development projects, or pieces of research initiated by individual
radiation therapists."
Another thing that has changed is there are now radiation
therapists with PhDs or Masters degrees working in many departments
- a number of whom have been mentored or supervised by Jenny.
Despite retiring recently, Jenny has great hopes for the future
of radiation therapy research.
"The next big achievement will be when radiation therapists are
lead researchers on large competitive grants," she says. "This will
take some time, as there are few small grant opportunities which
can be used by radiation therapists to build up their track
records.
"Radiation therapists are also the personnel in the department
who have least control over their time, making on-the-job research
difficult.
"However, we are on the way, as most departments of radiation
oncology now have radiation therapist research positions and these
people are carrying out important research for the future."
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