Volume 21, Number 1 June 2005

M E D I C A L P H Y S I C S W O R L DBulletin of the International Organization for Medical Physics

IOMP Home Page Address: http://www.iomp.org

74 Adhering National Organizations 2005

Alergia • Argentina • Australia • Austria • Bangladesh • Belgium • Brazil • Bulgaria • Canada • Chile • Colombia • Cuba • Cyprus• Denmark • Ecuador • Egypt • Estonia • Finland • France • Georgia • Germany • Ghana • Greece • Hong Kong • Hungary • India• Indonesia • Iran • Ireland • Israel • Italy • Japan • Jordan • Korea • Lithuania • Malaysia • Mexico • Mexico Nuevo Leon • Moldova • Mongolia • Morocco • Nepal• Netherlands • New Zealand • Nigeria • Norway • Pakistan • Panama • People’s Republic of China • Philippines • Poland • Portugal• Republic of China, Taiwan • Romania • Russia • Singapore • Slovenia • South Africa • Spain • Sri Lanka • Sudan • Sweden • Switzerland • Tanzania• Thailand • Trinidad & Tobago • Turkey • Uganda • Ukraine • United Kingdom • United States of America • Venzuela • Zambia • Zimbabwe

President’s Message – Prof. Azam Niroomand-Rad, Ph.D., President IOMP

Prof. Azam Niroomand-Rad,President of IOMP

(continued on page 2)

MPW Vol. 21 (1), 2005 EMPW: www.medphysics.wisc.edu/~empw

Table of Contents

President’s Message . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1

IOMP Officers and Council . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2

Secretary General Report . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4

Scientific Committee Report . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4

In Memory of Professor John R. Cameron . . . . 6

Editor’s Corner . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8

Treasurer’s and Finance Committee Report . . 10

Donation of Used Equipment . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14

Announcements . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15

Calendar of Events . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16

Status of the Libraries . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16

Prize for Education and Training . . . . . . . . . . 18

Education and Training Committee Report . . 18

Dear Fellow Members of IOMP,

I am pleased to inform you that on October15, 2004, the proposal for the formation ofan ‘International Commission on MedicalPhysics’ (IComMP), which will be an ‘Af-filiated Commission’ of the InternationalUnion of Pure and Applied Physics (IUPAP)was approved enthusiastically by the IUPAPCouncil and Commission Chairs Meeting inMuambai, India. At this meeting, Dr. PalOrmos, Chair of C6, Commission on Bio-logical Physics and Director of BiophysicsInstitute in Hungry, introduced ProfessorMoira Steyn-Ross, Dept. of Physics & Elec-tronic Engineering, University of WaikatoHamilton, New Zealand, as a potential del-egate to IComMP from C6 who is interestedin collaborating with medical physicists.Moreover, Prof. Gunnar Tibell, Chair of C14,Commission on Education from UppsalaUniversity in Sweden, also expressed inter-est in collaboration with us.

The next step in finalizing IOMP affiliationwith IUPAP is to present this proposal to theIUPAP General Assembly at the October2005 meeting in Cape Town, South Africa.Once this proposal is approved, we can offi-cially invite IUPAP members from C6, C14,and/or any other physics group (Commission)within IUPAP to join the IOMP InternationalAdvisory Board. Moreover, our members will

be able to take part and collaborate in theactivities of the 18 sub-disciplinary Com-mission and 3 Affiliated Commission inIUPAP. See http://www.iupap.org for moredetails. Finally, we would be able to applyfor a modest conference grant (~$1000 /year, or $3000.00 every 3 years) for ourICMP (Int’l Conference on Medical Phys-ics) conferences.

I am also very pleased to inform you thatIOMP is now an “official” co-sponsor of theWorld Congress on Physics and SustainableDevelopment (WC-PSD) by contributing$5,000 towards the travel expenses of medi-cal physicists from developing countries toDurban, South Africa, October 31 - Novem-ber 2, 2005. We have also agreed to send atleast one delegate to this Congress.

As you are aware, the main organizers ofthe WC-PSD are IUPAP, ICTP (InternationalCenter for Theoretical Physics, Trieste,Italy), and the SAIP (South African Insti-tute of Physics). See http://www.wcpsd.orgfor more details. However, we plan to dem-onstrate to the participants of the WC-PSD(namely government agencies and scientificcommunities on the international arena) aleading role for IOMP in all aspects of phys-ics that relate to health and medicine. Weplan to focus on issues related to develop-ing countries - such as lack of resources andgovernment support. IOMP should empha-size the healthcare improvement throughimproved education and training of medi-cal physicists. Even though the “professionalaspects” of physics is not discussed at thisconference, I believe that IOMP “profes-sional” efforts in establishing national medi-cal physics associations are fundamental indeveloping and sustaining medical physicsin developing countries. Lastly, we want topresent an action plan for what the IOMP

can do to help solve some of the pressing worldproblems related to health and medicine.

To facilitate IOMP input to the WC-PSD, weshould coordinate and communicate our planthrough two (IOMP) individuals who have beenasked to serve on the WC-PSD by the main orga-nizers - namely ICTP: Perry Sprawls (serving asCo-Chair of the Planning Committee on Physicsand Health) and Slavik Tabakov (serving as amember of the Planning Committee). We wantIOMP to have an important role in planning thePhysics and Health theme. This can only beachieved if all of us (individually or collectively)submit and present our ideas and projects on is-sues related to medical physics to the Congress.To succeed, we particularly need to hear from themedical physicists in developing countries.

Officers and Council of IOMP - 2005

President: Azam Niroomand-Rad, Ph.D.Department of Radiation Medicine, L.L. Bles BluidingGeorgetown University Medical Center3800 Reservoir Road, N.W.Washington, D.C., 20007, USATel: (202) 444-3320 Fax: (202) 444-9323Email: nirooma@gunet.georgetown.edu

Vice-President: Barry J. Allen, Ph.D.5 Muneela PlaceYowie Bay NSW 2228 AustraliaTel: +61(02) 9524 2502 Fax: +61(02) 9524 1169Email: AllenBa@sesahs.nsw.gov.au

Secretary General: Peter H S Smith, Ph.D.Northern Ireland Regional Medical Physics AgencyMusgrave and Clarke HouseRoyal Hospitals SiteGrosvenor RoadBelfast BT12 6BATel: +44(0)28 9063 4430 Fax: +44(0)28 9031 3040Email: peter.smith@mpa.n-i.nhs.uk

Treasurer: George Mawko, Ph.D.Queen Elizabeth II Health Sciences Centre1278 Tower RoadHalifax, Nova ScotiaCanada, B3H 2Y9Tel: (902) 473-2677 Fax: (902) 473-2018Email: gmawko@dal.ca

Curator of IOMP Libraries: Allan Wilkinson, Ph.D.Department of Radiation Oncology, Desk T-28The Cleveland Clinic Foundation9500 Euclid AvenueCleveland, Ohio 44195 USATel: (216) 445-8289 Fax: (216) 444-8934Email: IOMPL@radonc.ccf.org

Professional Relations Committee ChairStelios Christofides, Ph.D.Dept. of Medical PhysicsNicosia General Hospital1450 Nicosia-CyprusTel: 357-2-801771 Fax: 352-2-801773Email: cstelios@cytanet.com.cy

Education and Training Committee, ChairSlavik Tabakov, Ph.D.Dept. Medical Engineering and PhysicsKing’s College London - GKTSM LondonSE5 9RS, UKTel. & Fax +44 (0)207 346 3536Email: slavik.tabakov@kcl.uk

Publication Committee, ChairKwan Hoong-Ng, Ph.D.Department of RadiologyUniversity of Malaya59100 Kuala LumparTel: +603 7950 2088Fax: +603 7958 1973e-mail: ngkh@um.edu.my

Science Committee, ChairCaridad Borras, D.Sc.Radiological Physics Consultant1501 44th St.NWWashington, D.C. 20007Phone: 202-974-3222Fax: 202-974-3610Email: Borrasc@hotmail.com

Editorial BoardE. Ishmael Parsai, Ph.D., EditorDepartment of Radiation OncologyMedical University of Ohio3000 Arlington AvenueToledo, Ohio 43614-2598, U.S.A.Tel: (419) 383-4541 Fax: (419) 383-3040Email: eparsai@meduohio.edu

Vrinda Narayana, Ph.D., Associate EditorRadiation Oncology DepartmentProvidence Cancer Institute2301 Foster Winter Drive, 1st FloorSouthfield, MI 48075, U.S.A.Tel: (248) 483-8622 Fax: (248) 483-8448Email: vrinda@weare.ro.med.umich.edu

Carter B. Schroy, Ph.D., Associate EdtiorCalendar of EventsRadiation Management Associates4716 Pontiac, St #100College Park, MD 20740-4705Tel: (301) 474-1387 Fax: (301) 474-0728Email: EventsEd@aol.com

IOMP correspondence should be addressed to

Drs. Niroomand-Rad and Allen.

Advertizing requests should be addressed to

Drs. Parsai and Narayana.

Event information should be addressed to Dr. Carter Schroy.

President’s Message (continued from page 1)

2 MPW Vol. 21 (1), 2005

Sun NuclearADUSE DEC. 04 Ad

To achieve the above stated goals, we couldconsider the following project-like sugges-tions put forth by the Planning Committee:a) Educational resources such as courses, ma-terials, e-learning possibilities, etcb) Projects to provide guidance and assistanceon the development of effective academicprograms in the developing countriesc) Structured programs for connecting stu-dents in the developing countries to educa-tional opportunities in other countriesd) Organized consultations and collaborationse) Resources that can be used to promotemedical physics in developing countries.

Clearly, we are not limited to these possibili-ties and we can come up with some moreideas. Below are some specific suggestions Iwould like to share with you:

1. E-Teaching Possibilities for MedicalPhysicists in Developing Countries:

Example: To demonstrate the success of theSlavik’s EMERALD project in teachingdiagnostic/nuclear materials to medicalphysicists in developed countries(namely Europe) and,

(1a) to expand the teaching materials to ra-diation therapy and

(1b) to have these materials available to allmedical physicists in developing coun-tries.

2. Short-Term Topical Courses/Work-shops for Medical Physicists in Devel-oping Countries:

Example: To demonstrate the success of theone-week annual AAPM/IOMP Interna-tional Scientific Exchange Programs(ISEP) courses/workshops in teachingradiation therapy physics (since 1992)and diagnostic/nuclear medicine phys-ics (since 2002) to medical physicists indeveloping countries and

(2a) to expand the program to more than oneISEP program per year to reduce theexisting waiting time for these courseswhich is often 3 to 4 years and

(2b) to expand the program to offer “followup” ISEP topical courses/workshops tothe developing countries that have al-ready received an ISEP course/workshopbut are interested in additional topicalrefresher courses

3. Compilation of Medical PhysicsGraduate Programs - Worldwide:

Example: To demonstrate the value of com-piling the information on medical phys-ics graduate programs (including thesyllabi of the required academic coursesas well as clinical training opportuni-ties, cost and length of the program, visaand language requirements, and avail-ability of fund and scholarship for theinternational students) and

(3a) to expand on the existing IOMP com-pilation of the medical physics gradu-ate programs to include at least one pro-gram from each country which offersone (18 countries are listed as of writ-ing of this report), and

(3b) to make this information readily avail-able to the medical physicists who areinterested to develop a graduate medi-cal physics program in their own coun-tries, and

(3c) to make this information readily avail-able to the students in developing coun-tries who are interested in pursuingmedical physics education either intheir own countries or in a nearby coun-try that they may find affordable.

4. Other Avenues to Improve MedicalPhysics Practice in DevelopingCountries:

Example:(4a) to demonstrate the value of establish-

ing national medical physics associa-tion for developing countries where onedoes not exist and show its impact oneducation and training of the medicalphysicists and on promotion of medi-cal physics practice, and

(4b) to discuss the IOMP ongoing efforts intrying to have the medical physics pro-fession be listed in the ILO (Interna-tional Labor Organization) list of oc-cupations and seek support from inter-national delegates who are attending theWC-PSD.

As always, we are looking to the membersfor direction. Please work with us to improveour organization by taking part in the IOMPinitiatives and providing us feedback.

MPW Vol. 21 (1), 2005 19

PROCEEDINGS OF WORLD CONGRESSES – Chicago 2000 and Sydney 2003There are a substantial number of CDs on the proceedings of both Congresses available. Anyoneinterested in receiving a copy should contact the Secretary-General peter.smith@mpa.n-i.nhs.uk.The only charge will be postage.

18 MPW Vol. 21 (1), 2005

Contemporary healthcare is impossible with-out medical technology. The training of medi-cal physicists/engineers is an essential partof the framework of measures for healthcaredelivery and radiological protection of pa-tients. During the period 1995-2001 theproject Consortium EMERALD developedthe first structured training and e-Learningmaterials on Medical Physics for: X-ray Di-agnostic Radiology, Nuclear Medicine andRadiotherapy. These materials are now usedin 65 countries. The success of EMERALDled to a new international pilot project fordeveloping training e-Learning materials onUltrasound and Magnetic Resonance Imag-ing Technology (EMIT). The partners in theproject EMIT form a Consortium of Univer-sities and Hospitals: King’s College London;University of Lund; University of Florence;King’s College Hospital; Lund UniversityHospital; Hôpital Albert Michallon Grenobleand the European Federation of Organisationsfor Medical Physics. Support Letter for theproject was issued by IOMP as well.

EMIT e-learning materials are original. Eachof both modules (US and MRI) is structuredand has a common length of approx. 4months. During this time the trainee will haveto acquire most necessary professional skills(competencies). Each EMIT training moduleincorporates: List of Competencies (based onIPEM training scheme); Structured Timetable(detailed curriculum); Educational ImageDatabase (with jpg images); Workbook withpractical tasks (made as a Web distributablee-book) and a Course Guide. The volume ofEMIT e-learning materials includes morethan 1900 images and 600 pages explanationsof the tasks (including various practical pro-tocols). These are engraved on 2 CD-ROMsand placed on a special Web server “Train-

First International Prize for Education and TrainingThe Eu Leonardo Da Vinci Award - Comes to Medical Physics –Slavik Tabakov, Ph.D., Chairman ETC

ing on Demand”. All these materials arehandled by an Image Database (running di-rectly form the CD) and by an user-friendlyuncomplicated HTML shell (which incor-porates PDF text, hyperlinked with the cor-responding images). This simplicity allowsfor the user to learn directly through his/herexisting computer and its Internet browserand Adobe Acrobat Reader, without depen-dence of external software. The whole con-tents of the Web server is also engraved onthe CD (as an e-book), thus eliminating theproblems with Internet speed. These mate-rials are commercialised and the income isdirected to their update.

All EMIT materials are produced in Englishand French. Following the success of theprevious project EMERALD, EMIT Con-sortium made appropriate steps to supportthe international use of these training mate-rials. For this reason EMIT developed addi-tionally a Digital Dictionary of terms cov-ering the whole field of Medical Imaging.The Dictionary includes more than 3000terms and cross-translates to/from any of:English, French, German, Italian, Swedish,Portuguese and Spanish. The Dictionary isengraved on each EMIT CD and includespossibility for future expansion and inclu-sion of new languages.

The quality of EMIT project results led toits nomination in mid-2004 for the presti-gious inaugural award for education of theEuropean Union - Leonardo da Vinci. A to-tal of 32 projects were nominated chosenfrom more than 4000 education and train-ing activities in the last decade. The awardceremony took place at the high-level Con-ference of all EU Ministers for Education,held in Maastricht, Holland, 14-16th De-cember. At this event EMIT project Con-sortium was announced as one of the threeWinners of the first Leonardo da VinciAward. The specially made trophy (withengraving from Leonardo’s “Flying man”)was presented by Mr Nicolas van der Pas(EU Director General for Education andTraining) to Dr Slavik Tabakov (EMIT Co-ordinator) and Dr Cornelius Lewis (repre-senting the Contracting Institutions King’sCollege London and Kings College Hospi-tal)

Without doubt this Award for a Medical Physicsproject, presented in the presence of all Ministersof Educations of the EU countries will be a boostfor the development of the profession. EMIT Con-sortium thanks heartily to all colleagues who con-tributed to the development and assessment ofthese important for our profession e-Learningmaterials.

All information for the EMERALD and EMIT projects(plus a 30 MB demo) is available from their Web site:http://www.emerald2.net

The Leonardo da Vinci Award

During the period October 2004 - March 2005the IOMP Education and Training Committeesupported the Regional Course/Workshop “Cur-rent Practices and Advances in Radiation TherapyPhysics”, at Manila, Philippines. The course, co-sponsored by AAPM, is planned for August 2005.

Additionally ETC initiated a discussion for de-velopment guidance and procedures for valida-tion of Medical Physics courses. This was sent tothe IOMP ExCom as a proposal for IOMP projectto be presented at the World Conference on Phys-ics and Sustainable Development, Durban, No-vember 2005. The project objective will be todevelop a Guide e-book with Model Curriculumfor educational Medical Physics courses (alsocalled MSc-level or post-graduate courses, andnormally with duration of 1 year), which to beused by countries without experience/guidance inthis field.

During December 2004 the International Medi-cal Physics training project EMIT was awardedwith the first ever Leonardo da Vinci Award ofthe European Union. A separate article in thisMPW covers this activity.

Report from the Education& Training Committee –Slavik Tabakov, PhD, Chairman IOMP - ETC

Mr Nicolas van der Pas presents the Leonardo daVinci Award to Dr Tabakov and Dr Lewis.

Secretary General’s Report – Peter H S Smith, B.A., Ph.D.

4 MPW Vol. 21 (1), 2005

Report of the Scientific Committee – Cari Borras, D.Sc., Science Committee Chair

Is ‘Physics for Health’ the same as ‘MedicalPhysics’? This is not just semantics but raisesthe issue of whether we, as a profession, arefully contributing to all areas of health andwell-being that we could. What should IOMPbe doing if there are underdeveloped areas?

These thoughts have been prompted by con-sidering the part IOMP should play in theWorld Congress on ‘Physics andSustainability’ (South Africa, November thisyear) where one of the four themes is ‘ Phys-ics and Health’. Underdeveloped areas caneither be at the boundaries of our professionor healthcare problems that medical physi-cists are not focussing on. Medical physicsactivities world-wide tend to deal withhealthcare issues arising from the historicaldevelopment of medical physics in Europeand America and the profile of diseases foundin those regions - heart disease and cancer inparticular. The disease profile in other conti-nents is very different. HIV/AIDS is the lead-ing cause of death among adults aged 15-19world-wide. Tuberculosis, HIV/AIDS andmalaria kill over 6 million people each year.

The above is not intended to lessen the im-portance of more traditional aspects of medi-cal physics in developing countries. TheWorld Health organisation (WHO) recognisesthat access to health technologies is the oneof the most distinct differences between richand poor counties and that a strong mesh ofhealth technologies is one of the most funda-mental prerequisites for sustainable and self-reliance of health systems. In its plans for‘Essential Health Technologies’ for 2004-2007 the WHO has identified diagnostic im-aging as one of the major challenges - somethree-quarters of the world’s population haveno access to diagnostic services(www.who.int/eht).

IOMP has as one objective ‘To contributeto the advancement of medical physics inall aspects’, with medical physics being de-fined as ‘...using scientific (mainly physics)principles, methods and techniques in prac-tice and research for the prevention, diag-nosis and treatment of human disease, witha special goal of improving health and well-being’. Plenty of scope therefore for medi-cal physicists in the first and third worldcounties to apply both established andemerging areas of physics, and closely re-lated areas, to the challenges of healthcareworld-wide. Of course, most medical physi-cists are employed to deliver a specific ser-vice and have no time for exploring newareas. Perhaps IOMP should be identifyingareas and alerting funding bodies. Even ifsome healthcare problems seem unamenableto the attention of physicists, a very smallcontribution to a large problem can be sig-nificant.

The above thoughts were also stimulated bymy attendance in January on behalf of theInternational Union of Physical and Engi-neering Sciences in Medicine (IUPESM) ata of a inter-Union working group held at theInternational Council of Scientific Unions(ICSU) in Paris. The aim was to finalise adocument for presentation to ICSU propos-ing the establishment of an ICSUprogramme ‘Science for Health and Well-being’ and to requesting initial funding.Readers will recall that IUPESM is the um-brella organisation for medical physics(IOMP) and medical engineering (IFMBE)and IUPESM is a member of ICSU, whichis a non-governmental organisation repre-senting a global membership that includesboth national scientific bodies and interna-tional scientif ic Unions. The proposedprogramme will focus on the contribution

that cross-disciplinary research can play in tack-ling health and well-being issues. The proposalincludes two working papers from IUPESM, ‘ TheImpact of Technology on HypercommunicableDisease Processes’ and ‘Science and Technologyin the Care of Patients and Persons with Disabili-ties’ (see www.iupesm.org ) A number of otherUnions are involved, not only those directly in-volved in health, such as the ‘International Unionof Biological Sciences’ but ones such as the ‘In-ternational Geographical Union’. ICSU issued adraft Strategy for 2006-2012 in February and thisidentifies four themes, with ‘Human Health’ asone of these. The Strategy will be finalised andthe outcome of our proposal will be known by theautumn.

The IOMP executive Committee (EXCOM) hada virtual meeting in January and notes of it are onthe IOMP website. EXCOM warmly welcomedand approved (on an interim basis and subject toformal Council ratification) an application by theMexican Federation of Organisations for Medi-cal Physics. The Federation is composed of threebodies - two of which are existing members ofIOMP (SOFIMED NL and AMFM) and these twoorganisations are withdrawing their separate mem-bership - and it represents 50 medical physicists.

EXCOM agreed that IOMP should prepare a strat-egy with a view to formal approval by Council in2006, after full consultation with all interestedparties. Any ideas and proposals are most wel-come. A budget for 2005 was also approved.

The IOMP website now has dedicated areas forthe Equipment and Library programs.. The ‘Glo-bal OnLine Medical Physics Book’ (GOMP)website has been transferred to the IOMP site(under ‘Education and Training’).

The IOMP Science Committee in this period has continued working with the ICRP and the ISR to have joint sessions at the forthcomingICMP 2005 in Nuremberg. The planning of the ICRP/IOMP Symposium is completed: the topics and the speakers have been selected andtheir participation, confirmed. The ISR/IOMP Symposium is still in the planning stage.

The Chair of the SC was invited to present: Medical Physics: An International Perspective to the Joint Meeting of the National Society ofBlack Physicists and the National Society of Hispanic Physicists, held in Orlando, Fl, February 17-19. She discussed the role of the IOMPand its committees’ activities.

The two radiation oncology societies in Latin America, the Círculo de Radioterapeutas Latino Americanos (CRILA) and the GrupoLatinoamericano de Curieterapia y Radioterapia Oncológica (GLAC-RO) organized a Joint Congress in Lima, Peru, with significantparticipation of ALFIM and ALFIM members, March 29-April 2, 2005 to form a new society: Asociación Latino Americana de TerapiaRadiante y Oncología (ALATRO). The IOMP SC was represented at the ALFIM sessions by Dr. Maria Esperanza Castellanos, ALFIMliaison to the IOMP SC. The Chair of the IOMP SC participated in some clinical sessions, discussing the role of the medical physicists inquality assurance programs and in the investigation of accidental medical exposures.

16 MPW Vol. 21 (1), 2005

– Stelios Christofides; IOMP, PRC Chairperson

Goals of the Program1. To introduce members of developing countries

to medical physics scientific, educational andprofessional issues at the international level andmake them more effective to advance medicalphysics in their own country.

2. To promote international co-operation in thefield of medical physics between all membercountries of the lOMP.

Application Instructions and Application FormInstructions, Conditions and Application Form canbe found in the IOMP Web page (www.iomp.org)under electronic forms Travel Assistance Program:World Congress 2006.

World Congress ’06Seoul, Korea – TravelAssistance ProgramWe currently have 68 active libraries in 41

countries. Active status is maintained byreturning an update questionnaire every 2years. The 2004 update questionnaire wassent to 70 libraries in April 2004. By De-cember 2004, responses from 41 libraries hadbeen received. There are 4 libraries that sentupdates in 2003. A second request for up-dating the library information was subse-quently sent to the 25 libraries that had notyet responded. To date, we have received re-sponses from 7 of these. One further attemptto contact the remaining 18 libraries will bemade shortly. After that, non-responders willbe placed on the inactive list.There have been 6 private donations of jour-nals/books in the past year to Cameroon,

The following events can be found on the online calendar of the journal “Medical Physics” at http://medphys.org/calendar/ . Please email yourinternational events to the Calendar Editor, Carter Schroy, at EventsEd@aol.com for inclusion in MPW. Deadlines for MPW are April 1 andOctober 1 for issues that are mailed several weeks later.

28 June - 1 July 2005XV Congreso Nacional de Fisica Medica SociedadEspañola de Fisica Medica (SEFM); Pamplona,Spain http://www.sefm.es |anastasio.rubio.arroniz@cfnavarra.es

18-22 July 2005AAPM Summer School; Seattle, WA USATopic: Brachytherapy Physicsaapm@aapm.org | http://aapm.org

19-20 July 2005Medical Image Understanding and Analysis 2005;Bristol, UK http://www.miua.org.uk

24-28 July 2005AAPM 47th Annual Meeting; Seattle, WA USAAmerican Association of Physicists in Medicineaapm@aapm.org | http://aapm.org

28 Aug - 1 Sep 2005Applied Modeling and Computations in NuclearScience; Washington DC, USA to be held at the230th American Chemical Society NationalMeeting http://www.cofc.edu/~nuclear |tms15@health.state.ny.us

14-17 September 200514th Int’l Conference of Medical Physics;Nuremberg, Germany Incorporates the 9thEuropean Congress of Medical Physics (EFOMP)and the 36th Annual Meeting of the German Societyof Medical Physics (DGMP) and is being heldjointly with the 39th Annual Meeting of the GermanSociety for Biomedical Engineering http://www.icmp2005.org | ICMP2005info@imp.uni-erlangen.de

Calendar of Events – Carter Schroy, Ph.D., MPW Associate Editor

18-20 September 20057th Int’l Conference on Dose, Time, and Fraction-ation Multi-Modality Based Modulation of Dose,Time, and Fractionation Using Modern Tools.;Madison, WI USApaliwal@humonc.wisc.edu

29-30 September 2005WAM 2005 - Workshop on Alternatives toMammography; Copenhagen, Denmarkhttp://www.WAM2005.com |lbako@WAM2005.com

13-18 November 200514th International Symposium on Microdosimetry(MICROS 2005); Venice, ItalyAn Interdisciplinary Meeting on IonisingRadiation Quality, Molecular Mechanisms,

Status AAPM/IOMP Libraries April 2005 –Allan Wilkinson, Ph.D, IOMP Curator of Libraries

Costa Rica, India, Pakistan, Thailand, andTurkey. We are in the process of assigning2 more private donations to deserving librar-ies.Jennifer Davis at AAPM coordinates thedonations of Medical Physics Journal sub-scriptions. She informed us that 68 mem-bers donated their 2005 subscriptions to theLibrary Program. We have e-mailed her thelist of current address for the 68 recipientlibraries. Each quarter, The Society forRadiological Protection mails their quarterlypublication, The Journal of RadiologicalProtection, to all active libraries.Anyone wishing to donate materials or es-tablish a library is asked to contact the cu-rator.

World Congress on Medical Physics andBiomedical Engineering 2006

Aug. 27 - Sept. 1, 2006 COEX Convention & Exhibition Center Seoul, Korea,Hosted by KOSMBE, and KSMP

Secretary General……….. Kwang Suk Park

Treasurer…………………. Sung Y. Park

Program Chairs:

- Biomedical Engineering……….. Eung Je Woo

- Medical Physics………………... Hee-JoungKim

Exhibition Committee Chairs:

- Biomedical Engineering…………. Young Ro Yoon

- Medical Physics…………………. Bo-Young Choe

For more information, visit our website at: www.wc2006-seoul.org

Organizing Committee

Sun I. Kim

President

Tae Suk Suh

Co-President

Cellular Effects, and Their Consequences for LowLevel Risk Assessment and Radiation Therapy http://micros2005.lnl.infn.it |Roberto.Cherubini@lnl.infn.it

10-12 April 20069th International Workshop on Electronic PortalImaging (EPI2K6); Melbourne, AustraliaJeff.Crosbie@wbrc.org.au

28 June - 1 July 2006CARS 2006: Computer Assisted Radiology andSurgery; Osaka, Japanhttp://www.cars-int.org | office@cars-int.org

27 Aug - 1 Sept 2006World Congress of Medical Physics and BiomedicalEngineering; Seoul, South Korea http://www.wc2006-seoul.org | wc2006@koconex.com

MPW Vol. 21 (1), 2005 156 MPW Vol. 21 (1), 2005

In Memory of Prof. John R. Cameron – Azam Niroomand-Rad, Ph.D., IOMP President

It is with great personaland professional sadnessthat I inform you of thepassing of ProfessorJohn R. Cameron onMarch 16, 2005 inGainesville, Florida,USA, from diabeticcomplications. He was

82 years old and is survived by his wifeLavonda and two daughters, Anne MarieSkye and Carol Cameron. With the death ofProf. Cameron, our organization has lost abeloved founder, a great innovator, and aninternationally acclaimed scientist in themedical applications of physics.

Prof. Cameron attained many honorsthroughout his distinguished scientific career,including the William D. Coolidge Award ofthe American Association of Physicists inMedicine (1980), the first Roentgen Centen-nial Commemorative Medal ever given to amedical physicist by the Radiological Soci-ety of North America (1995), and the firstMarie-Sklodowska-Curie Award by our or-ganization (2000). During his career, Prof.Cameron served as an advisor or consultantto numerous organizations including the In-ternational Atomic Energy Agency, the In-ternational Center for Theoretical Physics, theBureau of Radiological Health (now CDRH),the Atomic Energy Commission (now NRC),the State of Wisconsin Radiation Safety Of-fice, and the University of Wisconsin (UW)Radiation Safety Committee. He was a Char-ter member of the American Association ofPhysicists in Medicine (AAPM), serving asits President (1968), President of the NorthCentral Chapter of the Health Physics Soci-ety (1968), President of the Central Chapterof the Nuclear Medicine Society (1968), anda member or honorary member of medicalphysics societies in England, Ireland, France,Italy, India, and Brazil. Prof. Cameron alsoserved as Secretary-General of our organi-zation (1968-1974).

Of Scottish heritage, Prof. Cameron was bornin a farm in northern Wisconsin on April 21,1922. He received his B.S. (1947) in math-ematics from the University of Chicago(1947), his M.S. (1949) in physics, and hisPhD (1952) in nuclear physics from the Uni-versity of Wisconsin (UW) in Madison. Hethen taught at the Universidad de Sao Paulo,Brazil, and the University of Pittsburgh be-fore returning to the UW in 1958. At UW, he

agreed to work as a physicist in the Depart-ment of Radiology, where he applied phys-ics principles to the diagnosis and treatmentof disease. He subsequently founded the“medical physics” program at the UW andhelped it to grow from one physicist to thefirst medical physics department in a medi-cal school in the US by 1981. Prof.Cameron’s accidental life in physics andmedical physics is best reflected in one ofhis informal talk to his physics colleaguesthat can be found atwww.medphysics.wisc.edu.

Besides founding and heading a leading re-search and training medical physics programin US, in 1960, Prof. Cameron invented abone densitometry instrument a device fordetecting and evaluating osteoporosis. Bonedensitometry was the first application ofdigital radiography. It used a scanning monoenergetic photon beam, which was detectedand counted with a pulse height analyzer.There are now about 45,000 such instru-ments in use in the world. He also devel-oped thermoluminescent dosimetry, TLD, inmid 1960s. TLDs are now thebasic method for measuringradiation dosage to radiationworkers and to patients. (Prof.Farrington Daniels of UWhad invented the TLD in1954but had not developed it forcommercial use).

Prof. Cameron first advo-cated for the reduction of ra-diation to patients from medi-cal x-rays in 1960. By 1970he realized that the maincause of excess radiation ex-posure to the patient frommedical x-rays was the poorquality of many x-ray images.He and other colleagues atUW pioneered instrumentsthat allowed better qualitycontrol (QC) of medical x-rayimages. They developedsimple but effective tools toevaluate x-ray equipment.Prof. Cameron and his wifefounded Radiation Measure-ments Inc. (RMI) inMiddleton, WI, in 1974 as anonprofit company to manu-facture and sell these devices.Breast cancer x-ray facilities

all over the country are currently being certifiedwith use of these devices. After his retirement in1985, when RMI was sold to Dr. CharlesLescrenier in1987, the money was used to estab-lish Medical Physics Publishing Company. Prof.Cameron was also instrumental in founding theUW Bio-magnetism Laboratory, which detectsweak magnetic fields produced by physiologicactivity and uses these signals for diagnosis ofdisease and modeling of human brain includingimagination and creativity. He is the author ofcountless journal articles and several books deal-ing with medical uses of radiation and how thebody works. His three famous books are: Medi-cal Physics, Physics of the Body, and Thermolu-minescent Dosimetry.

Prof. Cameron dedicated his entire life to improv-ing the medical physics profession in the US andmany developing countries. He is well known forhis original, forward thinking, and thought pro-voking presentations of controversial scientificsubjects. His most recent efforts were to undo “ra-diation phobia” by informing the professionals

Prof. John R. Cameron

(1922 – 2005)

(continued on page 15)

and the general public of the potential benefits of radiation at low doses.Prof. Cameron strongly disagreed with Linear No Threshold (LNT)model indicating that small amount of radiation may cause cancer. Hepoints out that the public is misinformed about the hazards of low levelradiation and he suggested a practical radiation unit for the public -BERT (Background Equivalent Radiation Time) describing the diag-nostic exposures in terms of human exposure times to background ra-diation. He felt that profession itself is partly responsible for the public’sfears and misconceptions about ionizing radiation. He believed thatlow-level radiation is good and made it his crusade to inform the publicof unjustified radiation phobia. (See his last paper in the Jan. 2005 BJR).

In addition to being an incredibly scientifically gifted individual, Prof.Cameron was a great educator with a sense of humor. He had the abil-ity to present scientific concepts in a lucid and humorous manner thateven a layperson could understand and enjoy them. He was a very gen-erous, openhearted, spirited, and optimistic individual, who took joy ineducating people. Prof. Cameron was very supportive of medical phys-ics activities in developing countries as evident by his teaching (fluentin Portuguese and Spanish) and by donation of QC tools, books andjournals to the developing countries. We will all miss his selfless en-ergy, dedication to education, and his wonderful sense of humor. For-tunately our memory of him is preserved in his web sitewww.medphysics.wisc.edu/-jrc/ and in the many-videotaped interviewsthat he conducted of his colleagues for the AAPM History Committee.

Prof. John R. Cameron –(Continued from page 6) ANNOUNCEMENTS

Dr. Erich Gebhardt, Praxis Dr. Angerstein/Dr.Huber, Weiltinger Str. 11, D 90449 NürnbergGermany has very kindly donated a MultidataTreatment Planning System Version 2.4S toIOMP Equipment Donation Program. The TPSwas used in their radiation therapy institute un-til January 2004 in routine patient planning. TheMultidata TPS consist of: PC with MS-Win-dows 95, 128MB Memory, 3,5" Floppy, 2Harddisks (1,6+2 GB), SCSI-Controller, CR-ROM drive, CD-R/W-drive, 5,25" MOD Pio-neer Drive, 10/100 network, keyboard, mousean printer (inkjet) Canon BJC 610 (A4) an digi-tizer (Multidata) 77x66 cm (Digitizing area:62x52 cm), background illuminated, fitting tothe PC, inclusive cables. We used a 21" one,but it is not included in the donation. Software:Multidata System DSS 2.4S (Revision state 30March2000) with option for CT-Scanner GEHigh Speed Advanced and Siemens, both viaMOD or network, no DICOM, Software forconverting measured profiles into the DSS-Sys-tem is included. With original Documentationand Software-Disks. The system works well andis complete. You just need a VGA monitor. Thisis being shipped to Institute of Nuclear Medi-cine, Oncology and Radiotherapy (NORI), Attn:Dr. Rafaqat Ali Jafri, Director, G-8/3,Islamabad, PAKISTAN. Necessary shipping ar-rangements are being made.

A GE DMR mammographic machine will beshipped to Professor Dilshod Zikirjahodjaev,Chief Oncologist, Oncology Scientific Center,Dushanbe, Republic of Tajikistan. It is verykindly donated by Dr. Leszek Hahn, FoothillMedical Center, Calgary, Canada. I am thank-ful to Mr. Ward Baird, Sales Representative ofInnomed Christi, who are the trade-in ownersof this machine, have very kindly agreed to do-nate this machine to IOMP.

Fred Asprinio, Jupiter Medical Center, Radia-tion Oncology, Jupiter, FL, USA has very gen-erously offered 3 units of Nuclear Associates37-720 electrometer (dual channel) for diodemeasurements, Sun Nuclear PDM, patient dosemonitor for diodes(4 channel), Victoreen 471survey meter, needs repair, Holaday microwavesurvey meter, model HI-1600 and Lumisys 75film scanner. This equipment donation fromJupiter Medical Center, Radiation Oncology isbeing shipped to Idaho State University, Col-lege on Engineering, ATTN: Dr. Jay Kunze,Dean, Pocatello, ID 83209. Idaho State Univer-sity is making a museum of old instruments.

In the last report, I forget to mention the nameof my friend, Charles Narayanan, physicist atthe Reid Hospital, Richmond who was the do-

Donation of Used Equipment –PRC Report for Jan.-June 2005Mohammed K. Zaidi, Program Manager, IOMP Professional Relations Committee

nor for the CMS TPS shipped toIndia. He has been very helpfulto me in getting used equipmentand its shipment. I am very sorryfor the mistake.

Used equipment needed:

Linear accelerator, Theratronic780 Co-60, Automatic film pro-cessor, block cutter, patient dosemonitor and ultrasound machine.

Shipping arrangements:

The institutions need used equip-ment should mention in their re-sponse that they would pay ormake arrangements for shippingat a very short notice.

Dr. Ajai Kumar Shukla from In-dia will be helping me in IOMPefforts to deliver quality servicein getting and transferring usedequipment from generous donorsto those who need them badly.He can be reached at Departmentof Nuclear Medicine,SGPGIMS, Raebarelli Road,Lucknow (UP), 226014, INDIA.His phone number is 91-0522-2668700 extension 2615 andemail address isakshukla@sgpgi.ac.in.

The equipment donated to IOMPUsed Equipment Donation Pro-gram is generally in good work-ing condition but we don’t guar-antee its usefulness. The dona-tion of used equipment to IOMPare sometime tax deductible.

Our webpages has a space forused equipment program. Pleasevisit, I will be able to post a listof available used equipment butmost of it comes to me at a veryshort notice, so it may not bethere. A list of donated equip-ment will also be posted.

If you want to donate or wantsome used equipment donated toyour organization, please contactMohammed K. Zaidi, Profes-sional Relations Committee atour website www.iomp.org.

14 MPW Vol. 21 (1), 2005

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MPW Vol. 21 (1), 2005 138 MPW Vol. 21 (1), 2005

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Editor’s Corner – E. Ishmael Parsai, Ph.D., MPW Editor

This column of MPW is dedicated to provide anupdate on new information source and relatednews topics in the fields of Medical and Healthphysics. Often we list references to review articles,useful websites, and summaries of current inno-vative advances in the field. Any suggestion fromthe readers to enhance this column is welcomed.In addition, if you have ideas or issues that youbelieve should be brought to the attention of theMPW readers, please send them to the MPW edi-tor, Dr. Parsai, at: eparsai@meduohio.edu.

High Cholesterol Levels May Speed ProstateCancer Lowering Cholesterol Levels MaySlow Growth of Prostate Cancer Tumors

This is according to M. Freeman, Ph.D., programdirector of the urological diseases research centerat Children’s Hospital in Boston, whose new studyappeared in the April 2005 issue of The Journal ofClinical Investigation. “Our data support the no-tion that cholesterol-lowering drugs which arewidely used and fairly safe might be effective inprevention of prostate cancer, or as an adjunctivetherapy”. Researchers say the results suggest thattreating high cholesterol with cholesterol-lower-ing drugs like statins may offer a new way to treatand potentially prevent prostate cancer. In thisstudy, researchers injected Mice with human pros-tate cancer cells, and when the animals’ choles-terol levels were raised by diet, cholesterol accu-mulated in the outer walls of the tumor cells. Thischolesterol buildup activated a “cell survival” path-way known as Akt. Activation of this pathwayprompted the tumor cells to resist cues to die.Therefore, the cancer cells multiplied and the tu-mors grew. Researchers say elevated cholesterollevels did not stimulate new prostate cancers butpromoted tumor growth. In a separate experiment,researchers looked at the effects of adding a cho-lesterol-lowering statin drug to prostate cancercells in a test tube. The drug reduced cholesterolbuildup in the cell walls and increased the rate ofcell death, which caused the cancer cells to stopgrowing. Researchers say although some studieshave linked high cholesterol levels to certain typesof cancer, very little is known about the relation-ship between cholesterol and cancer at the cellu-lar level. This study suggests that cholesterol mayhelp prostate cancer tumors survive and grow atthe cellular level by changing the chemical sig-naling pattern within the cells.

A Cold Approach to Prostate CancerTreatment 85% of Men Free of Prostate

Cancer 10 Years after CryoablationCryoablation, a prostate cancer treatmentprostatecancer treatment that destroys tumors by freezingthem may be as effective in the long term as sur-gery or radiation. “Patients who got this treatmentoften went back to their usual activities within twoor three weeks,” study researcher F. Derrick Jr.,MD, a urologist in Charleston, S.C. presented inMarch 2005 at a regional meeting of the Ameri-can Urological Association in Charleston. Among

88 men enrolled in the study, 85% remained freeof prostate cancer for a decade after having thefreezing treatment, known as cryoablation orcryosurgery. This is the longest follow-up studyof this prostate cancer treatment reported to dateand the long-term side effects of cryoablation alsocompared favorably to more established prostatecancer treatments. While all men were impotentimmediately after having the procedure, about athird regained some natural potency without theaid of drugs within a year, Derrick says. Just 2%of the men had severe urinary incontinence, but8% had some lesser degree of leakage. The studyincluded prostate cancer patients treated withcryoablation between 1994 and 2004. Althoughcryoablation has been around for decades, it hasbeen slow to catch on as a prostate cancer treat-ment because complication rates were high withearlier versions of the technology. Cryoablationis suitable for men who have not previously re-ceived prostate cancer treatment and whose pros-tate cancer has not spread. Men who have alreadybeen treated with radiationradiation can also re-ceive cryoablation as long as the cancer has notspread. The procedure involves inserting thin,temperature-controlled probes through the skinand into the prostate gland. In most cases theentire prostate is frozen.The position of the American Urology Associa-tion on cryoablation effectiveness is that it is seenas one of several emerging prostate cancer treat-ments that could eventually prove superior to tra-ditional surgerytraditional surgery and radiationaccording to their spokesman J. B. Thrasher,M.D., but it has not been out long enough to pro-vide researchers with good long-term data. “Be-fore this is widely adopted, most academic cen-ters and urologists are going to want to see moredata”. More and more men are open to new pros-tate cancer treatments, especially if they proveto have fewer long-term side effects. “They wantthe long-term cure, but there is also an increas-ing understanding of quality of life issues in thetreatment of prostate cancer,” he says. “A mini-mally invasive approach like this one is very ap-pealing. We just need more data to be able toadequately answer our patients’ questions.”

Herceptin® Combined With ChemotherapyImproves Disease-Free Survival for Patients

With Early-Stage Breast CancerResults from two large randomized clinical tri-als for patients with HER-2 positive invasivebreast cancer show that those patients with early-stage breast cancer who received Herceptin®(trastuzumab) in combination with chemotherapyhad a significant decrease in risk for breast can-cer recurrence compared with patients who re-ceived the same chemotherapy withouttrastuzumab. Patients are considered “HER-2positive” if their cancer cells “overexpress,” ormake too much of, a protein called HER-2, whichis found on the surface of cancer cells.Trastuzumab slows or stops the growth of thesecells, and it is only used to treat cancers that

overexpress the HER-2 protein. Approximately 20%to 30% of breast cancers overexpress HER-2. Thesetumors tend to grow faster and are generally more likelyto recur than tumors that do not overproduce HER-2.The clinical trials were sponsored by the National Can-cer Institute (NCI), part of the National Institutes ofHealth, and conducted by a network of researchers ledby the National Surgical Adjuvant Breast and BowelProject (NSABP) and the North Central Cancer Treat-ment Group (NCCTG), in collaboration with the Can-cer and Leukemia Group B, the Eastern CooperativeOncology Group, and the Southwest Oncology Group.Genentech, Inc., South San Francisco, Calif., whichmanufactures trastuzumab, provided the drug for thetrials under the Cooperative Research and DevelopmentAgreement (CRADA) with NCI for the clinical devel-opment of trastuzumab.The Data Monitoring Committees overseeing the com-bined analysis of these trials (known as NSABP-B-31and NCCTG-N9831)* recommended that the resultsof a recent combined interim analysis be made publicbecause the studies had met their primary endpoints ofincreasing disease-free survival (the amount of time pa-tients live without return of the cancer) in patients re-ceiving trastuzumab in combination with chemotherapy.The improvement in overall survival also was statisti-cally significant for women receiving a combinationof chemotherapy and trastuzumab. Patients in the clini-cal trials who received trastuzumab in combination withstandard combination chemotherapy had a 52 percentdecrease in disease recurrence compared to patientstreated with chemotherapy alone. This difference ishighly statistically significant. “This is a major advancefor many thousands of women with breast cancer,” saidNCI Director A.C. von Eschenbach, M.D. “These re-sults are one more example that we are at a major turn-ing point in the use of targeted therapies to eliminatesuffering and death from cancer,” he added. The lead-ers of the studies underscored the significance of theseresults and cited the collaborative efforts involved.“These findings confirm that we now have a very po-tent weapon against the recurrence of cancer cells thatoverexpress HER-2,” said E.A. Perez, M.D., whochaired the NCCTG trial and is a medical oncologist atthe Mayo Clinic in Jacksonville, Florida. E. Romond,M.D., study chair for the NSABP and professor of on-cology at the University of Kentucky, in Lexington, Ky.,noted, “For women with this type of aggressive breastcancer, the addition of trastuzumab to chemotherapyappears to virtually reverse prognosis from unfavorableto good.”Information from over 3,300 patients enrolled in thesestudies was used for analysis. Patients with operablebreast cancer whose tumors over-expressed HER-2 wereenrolled in these studies between February 2000 andApril 2005. Patients were randomized to receive che-motherapy with doxorubicin and cyclophosphamidefollowed by paclitaxel, or doxorubicin and cyclophos-phamide followed by paclitaxel and trastuzumab. Mostpatients had lymph node-positive breast cancer, orbreast cancer that had spread to the lymph nodes, withonly a minority having lymph node-negative disease.The limited information in the node-negative group did

(continued on page 10)

10 MPW Vol. 21 (1), 2005

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not allow for a separate analysis of this group. Che-motherapy of the type given in these studies has arisk of congestive heart failure (weakening of theheart muscle) of less than 1 percent. In these stud-ies, the likelihood of congestive heart failure inwomen receiving the combination of chemo-therapy and trastuzumab was increased by 3% to4%. Patients in these studies will continue to befollowed for any additional side effects. Additionalsafety data will be presented at ASCO.Trastuzumab is an example of a “targeted” therapy,an agent that is directed against a specific changein the cancer cell. Trastuzumab was approved forthe treatment of advanced breast cancer in 1998.An estimated 211,240 women will be diagnosedwith breast cancer in the United States in 2005.Of these, about 30 percent have lymph node-posi-tive breast cancer, and about 20 percent to 30 per-cent of these tumors overexpress the HER-2 pro-tein, the target for trastuzumab. Breast cancer isthe most commonly diagnosed cancer in womenand the second leading cause of cancer-relateddeath in women in this country. An estimated40,110 deaths from female breast cancer will oc-cur in 2005 in the United States, accounting forabout 15 percent of all cancer-related deaths inwomen in the nation.

The following has been compiled by: MohammedK. Zaidi, Member, IOMP Professional RelationsCommittee.

Vaccine for Cervical Cancer:Merck’s and GlaxoSmithKline have been awardedrights to develop the vaccine to protect ladies withcancer of cervix. Cervical cancer strikes nearlyhalf a million women worldwide each year andkills about half. Virtually all cases are caused byinfection with human papilloma virus, or HPV,which is spread through sex. It will be adminis-tered at a young age so that they are protected be-fore they had any sex. The hepatitis B vaccine hasdramatically reduced the number of infections thatprogress to liver cancer. It is also being researchedto help cure genital warts in men and women andpenile and anal cancers in men. Another researchworked to show how the cells can destroy un-wanted proteins, it will help scientists to developnew medicines for cancer and other diseases. It isreported that they will be able to manipulate theprotein degradation system in two different ways- either to prevent it from destroying proteins thatboost the immune system, or to get rid of proteinsthat help cause diseases [ISJ, 11/01/2004;Bioc.Biop.Res.Comm, 1978, 78 (4), 1100-05;Cell, 1984, 37 (5), 57-66].

New Test for Breast Cancer:Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) was good indetecting cancer but less effective at ruling outmalignancies. MRI beats mammography in dis-tinguishing benign from malignant breast tumors;biopsies still must confirm the diagnosis. Dr.Bluemke of John Hopkin’s added that the MRIaids in determining the extent of the cancer, it isnot a substitute for breast biopsy. However the MRI

was not adversely affected by factors such asbreast density, tumor type or menopausal status,which frequently complicates mammography in-terpretation. It was also learned that MRI wouldaid patients with diff icult-to-interpretmammograms [JAMA, 2004, 292, 2735-42].

Heart Attack Risk:One of the added advantage to routine colon can-cer screening, the Computed Tomographic (CT)colonography, or virtual colonoscopy usually de-tect colon cancer and can also detect heart at-tack risk. Dr. Davila used this scanning to mea-sure calcium deposit levels within the aorta andits branching vessels without additional testing.Just by noting calcification scores during virtualcolonoscopy, physicians may have additionalmeans of identifying those at risk for cardiovas-cular disease [RSNA 2004 Daily Bulletin].

Accident – Overexposure on 28 TeletherapyPatients:The US NRC and IAEA reported an accident inPanama involving radiation overexposure of 28teletherapy patients, resulting in multiple deathsin 2001. The two lady physicists involved are get-ting four years in a Panamanian jail for either(1) using buggy software, or (2) not doing a handcalculations while treating patients by improperentry of block shapes and its effect on dose cal-culations. To those who own buggy software(Windows’ operating systems to start with), thesentencing document makes it look like these in-dividuals “hacked” software that they reallyshouldn’t have. Most physicists have at one timeor another had to find ways to work around thelimitations of their tools. When needed, ways tocajole BEV contours may be found and thecrossed-contour segments cause problems. Simi-lar failures, contour points touching, contour seg-ment coincident with beam rayline, etc., can beobserved. The hand calculations should be con-sidered to be a non-negotiable requirement. Indeveloping countries, hand-calculations and in-dependent verification of dose to the prescrip-tion point as calculated by the treatment plan-ning system for each individual patient and be-fore the first treatment, should be a must. Theproper treatment and save the life of a patientshould be the most important part of their workschedule [US NRC Information notice IN 2001-08].

Oral Contraceptive (Pill) Cuts Cancer,Coronary Risk:The present study done on 162000 women at 40locations and funded $625M by the Institute ofHealth concludes that the pills have lower risksof heart disease and stroke and no increased riskof breast cancer. The types of hormones and thestage of life when they’re used may be what makethem helpful at one point and harmful at another.The pills were first introduced in 1960. Womenwho had taken pills for four years or more had42% lower risk of having ovarian cancer and 30%lower chances of developing uterine cancer. No

effects were seen on the risk of some specific cancers -breast, colon or bladder. The popular form of the usesestrogen derived from horse urine; birth control pillsuse a synthetic, manufactured form of it. Pills containfour to six times the amount of estrogen as even thelowest formulations of hormone replacement therapy[www.nhlbi.nih.gov/whi/].

The IOMP treasury started 2004 with a balance ofUS$196,646 and completed the year with $201,748 fora net surplus of $5,102. Our income was mostly fromnational organization dues, $39,146 and expendituresamounted to $34,044. A breakdown of the expendituresis provided in the following chart;

For 2005, income is projected at $50,050 and expensesat $90,400. The budgeted operating expenses are sum-marized in this chart:

Details about the 2005 budget can be found at http://www.iomp.org/bugets.htm.

Currently the members of the Finance Committee areDr. George Mawko, Chair (Canada), Dr. NisakornManatrakul, (Thailand), Dr. James B. Smathers, (USA),Dr. Peter H.S. Smith, IOMP S-G (UK) and Dr. MehrdadSarfaraz, (USA). Dr. Sarfaraz joined this committee in2004 as its inaugural Corporate Liaison Officer, respon-sible for corporate membership recruitment and reten-tion. The Finance Committee has been actively involvedin planning the 2005 budget as well as seeking addi-tional streams of revenue in order to provide a stablelong-term source of funds for IOMP programs and ac-tivities.

Treasurer’s and FinanceCommittee Report 2004 –George Mawko, Ph.D., Tresurer IOMP

2004 Summary of Expenditures (US$34,044)

Other $21,105

Science Committee$9,928

Education and Training Committee

$2,000

Professional Relations Committee

$1,011

Bank Charges$992

Website $1,752

Officer Travel $2,298

Office Operations$6,063

2004 IUPESM Membership Dues

$10,000

2005 Summary of Budget Expenditures (US$90,400)

2005 IUPESM Membership Dues

$10,000

Other$25,900

Administration $10,000

Professional RelationsCommittee $10,000

Internat'l Advisory Board $1,500 .

Publications Committee $1,000Education & Training

Committee $10,000

Science Committee$10,000

WC 2006 & ICMP 2005 Meeting

Support $32,000

Bank Charges $900

Officer Travel $5,000

Editor’s Corner – (continued from page 8)