OPTIMIZE-RT project kick off - Reducing radiation doses to Radiotherapy patients

On Monday 1 December, 2025, the University of Malta (UM) welcomed international experts to the Valletta Campus for the official kick-off of OPTIMIZE-RT (Project Grant: 2025-1-MT01-KA220-HED-000356020). Led by the Department of Radiography, this ambitious new project is set to transform how medical imaging is used during cancer treatment.

The Challenge: Balancing Precision and Safety Modern radiotherapy relies on daily imaging, specifically Cone Beam CT (CBCT), to position patients accurately. While this ensures the treatment hits the tumour, the daily imaging itself delivers a radiation dose to the patient.

We want to ensure that the imaging doses are 'As Low As Reasonably Achievable' (ALARA) without compromising the image quality needed for treatment.

The project brings together a prestigious multidisciplinary consortium to develop an education programme for Radiographers/Radiation Therapists, Medical Physicists, Oncologists, Quality Managers, and other professionals working with CBCT.

Under UM’s leadership, the partnership includes two universities, four hospitals, and four European/Worldwide organisations.
• University of Malta (Malta)
• Escola Superior de Saúde Politécnico do Porto (Portugal).
• Sir Anthony Mamo Oncology Centre/Ministry for Health and Active Ageing (Malta),
• Unidade Local de Saúde São João (Portugal),
• Instituto Português Oncologia Porto (Portugal),
• Fondazione IRCCS San Gerardo dei Tintori (Italy).
• The European Federation of Radiographer Societies (EFRS)
• European Federation of Organizations for Medical Physics (EFOMP)
• European Society for Radiotherapy and Oncology (ESTRO).
• International Commission on Radiological Protection (ICRP).

The hybrid meeting in Malta marked the beginning of this 3-year journey. Partners discussed the upcoming work, which includes a Europe-wide survey of current practices, the development of an open-access educational curriculum, and crucially, the implementation of these optimization protocols in hospitals to test their real-world impact.

By the project's end, OPTIMIZE-RT aims to deliver free, high-quality training resources that will empower healthcare professionals to reduce cumulative radiation doses for thousands of cancer patients across Europe.

Funded by the European Union. Views and opinions expressed are, however, those of the author(s) only and do not necessarily reflect those of the European Union or the European Union Programme Agency (EUPA). Neither the European Union nor the granting authority can be held responsible for them.