Leaving Her Mark from the Canadian Space Agency to the Odette Cancer Centre: Ekaterina Tchistiakova
THIS IS AN EXCERPT FROM THE 2016-2017 ANNUAL REPORT.
With a PhD in neuroimaging, and research stints at the Canadian Space Agency and the Odette Cancer Centre, Ekaterina Tchistiakova’s resume highlights many accomplishments. This Medical Physics Resident at the University of Toronto’s Department of Radiation Oncology (UTDRO) has no plans to slow down.
Ekaterina came to Canada in her mid-teens and soon enrolled in a Medical and Health Physics program at McMaster University. During her co-op term, she worked at the Canadian Space Agency in Montreal. Canadian astronaut Robert Thirsk was spending six months on board the International Space Station (ISS), and Ekaterina’s team was tasked with monitoring radiation and conducting experiments on the ISS. This was Ekaterina’s first introduction to radiation.
After her undergraduate training, Ekaterina did an internship at the Ottawa Cancer Centre, where she worked on validation of a new electron treatment planning system. Following this, she came to U of T for her Masters and PhD in Medical Biophysics. “My PhD took me away from radiation and towards neuroimaging,” she shared. “I was working with MRI and looking at brain health and vascular function. But I also had an interest in radiation therapy. I realized that there was an appetite for integrating imaging technology, especially MR, into radiation therapy. And that’s how I decided to pursue medical physics in radiation medicine.”
Ekaterina’s background in imaging is a good fit for the Medical Physics residency program, especially since the Odette Cancer Centre has been implementing new MR technology in their clinics. In her two-year residency, Ekaterina has been focusing on clinical projects, which will help her exposure to clinical radiation therapy and research.
Ekaterina has been involved in research with Matt Wronski and Brian Keller, both Assistant Professors at UTDRO and Medical Physicists at the Odette Cancer Centre. “Ekaterina has shown tremendous aptitude for clinical research while engaged in her medical physics residency here at Sunnybrook,” said Brian. “She is a self-starter who comes to you with the answers well ahead of the questions. Her curious nature, combined with her common sense approach, are well served attributes of a productive research career.”
The Canadian Organization of Medical Physicists invited Ekaterina to share her research on the implementation of online in-vivo dosimetry for lung cancer patients treated with VMAT, and she later won the J.R. Cunningham Award for Academic Excellence in Research from UTDRO for this work. “This is the first research award I received in radiation therapy,” she noted. “It is very encouraging and gratifying to know that my research is going to make a difference in the clinic.”
More recently, Ekaterina has been working with Geordi Pang, UTDRO Associate Professor and Medical Physicist at the Odette Cancer Centre, on the implementation of MR-imaging in the radiation therapy clinic. With her strong background in imaging, Ekaterina is well positioned to explore the types of equipment modifications, which will be needed to bring MR into the clinic.
Outside of research, Ekaterina has been busy learning different aspects of radiation treatment. “This is a very enriched program because it exposes you to different disciplines in a very short time,” she shared. “As a Physics resident, I have worked on projects with Radiation Oncology residents. Because of this, I already have a great rapport with my peers in radiation oncology and therapy. And this will help me later in my career as I build on these relationships and work with people from different disciplines.”
Ekaterina is looking forward to completing her residency this year. “While it has been challenging to learn so much in a very short time,” she said, “I am grateful for the many resources available to us and the support from faculty members and fellow residents. Yes, it is a lot of work, but at the same time, it is very gratifying.”
IMAGE CREDIT: HORST HERGET PHOTOGRAPHY