Dresden :: DKTK

Dresden

website_DKTK Standort.png — © Department Dresden

Within the DKTK consortium partner site Dresden stands for: Improvement of radio-oncological treatment by biological individualization and technical optimization including the use of particle radiotherapy in the context of innovative multimodal oncology strategies. In Dresden (and in the radiation oncology part of the program “Radiation oncology and Imaging”) particular emphasis is given to high-precision radiotherapy approaches, with a focus on particle therapy. This is linked to biology-driven individualization of treatment, using novel bio-imaging approaches and radiation-specific biomarkers, and by combining radiation with molecularly targeted drugs that may specifically modify radiation responses. Furthermore the dedicated and consortium-wide RadPlanBio platform, a database for multicenter clinical and preclinical studies linked to imaging and radiotherapy plan data, is available at all the DKTK sites (coordination: Dresden/Heidelberg).

In radiation oncology, the DKTK partner site Dresden is among the international leaders. Radiation research is embedded and supported by the comprehensive local expertise and infrastructure established in this field. Since 2004 this competence has been structurally integrated in the BMBF-funded OncoRay, which represents a pivotal basis for DKTK Dresden activities. Since 2010 OncoRay together with the Heidelberg Institute of Radiation Oncology (HIRO) jointly forms the National Center for Radiation Research in Oncology (NCRO). The two centers provide internationally highly competitive and complementary technology and expertise as a backbone for translational research in radiation oncology within the DKTK consortium. A new OncoRay building was completed within the first DKTK funding period and now hosts all Dresden DKTK scientists who actively participate in the Radiation Oncology program. Moreover, this building is home of the new proton facility featuring a clinical treatment room for DKTK trials and a large experimental cave for technology development and radiobiology. Furthermore, the “Universitäts Protonen Therapie Dresden” (UPC) went into operation in 2014 in Germany, following Heidelberg and Essen; as the third university-based proton therapy facility and the only one in operation in Eastern Germany. In the frame of NCRO the Heidelberg Ion-Beam Therapy Center (HIT) and the UPC Dresden cooperate intensively within the particle therapy topic.