Richard William Oates

• Doctor of Philosophy
• Radiation Therapist at Peter MacCallum Cancer Centre

Purpose Culturally and linguistically diverse (CALD) cancer patients report unmet informational and emotional needs when receiving radiotherapy (RT). This feasibility study aimed to evaluate the clinical use of an instant translation device (ITD) to facilitate communication between Mandarin-speaking patients and radiation therapists (RTTs) within t...

Purpose Culturally and linguistically diverse (CALD) cancer patients report unmet informational and emotional needs when receiving radiotherapy (RT). This feasibility study aimed to evaluate the clinical use of an instant translation device (ITD) to facilitate communication between Mandarin-speaking patients and radiation therapists (RTTs) within t...

Introduction: Clear, timely communication between practitioners and patients is key in ensuring equitable access to health services and optimal care. Australia's linguistically diverse population adds complexity to healthcare provision. This paper describes a validation study to assess clinical suitability of a language translation device, intende...

Introduction: Our department commonly uses a planning target volume (PTV) expansion of 6 mm posterior and 1 cm in all other directions when treating prostate cancer patients with image-guided radiotherapy (IGRT). This study aimed to test the adequacy of this PTV expansion by assessing geographical miss of the prostate on post-treatment cone-beam C...

Aims: To investigate a relationship between maximum rectal diameter (MRD) on pre-treatment cone beam computed tomography (CBCT) and intra-fraction prostate motion, in the context of an adaptive image-guided radiotherapy (IGRT) method. Materials and methods: The MRD was measured on 2125 CBCTs from 55 retrospective patient datasets and related to...

Aims: In technically advanced multicentre clinical trials, participating centres can benefit from a credentialing programme before participating in the trial. Education of staff in participating centres is an important aspect of a successful clinical trial. In the multicentre study of fractionated versus single fraction stereotactic ablative body...

Purpose: Complementary and alternative medicine (CAM) is increasingly used with radiotherapy treatment for cancer. This study aimed to explore patient expectations of concurrent CAM, positive/negative outcomes and any variation of use across regional and metropolitan demographics. Methods: An ethics-approved survey was provided to radiotherapy o...

Aim: The aim of this study is to investigate the rectal complication probabilities for various rectum volumes with intensity-modulated radiation therapy (IMRT) and three-dimensional conformal radiotherapy (3D-CRT) in patients undergoing prostate cancer radiotherapy. Materials and Methods: Thirteen patients undergoing prostate cancer radiotherapy we...

This study investigated a relationship between rectum diameter and prostate motion during treatment with a view to reducing planning target volume (PTV) margins for an adaptive protocol. One hundred and ninety-four cone-beam computed tomography (CBCT) images of 10 patients were used to relate rectum diameter on CBCT to prostate intrafraction displa...

To construct a method and software to track gold seed implants in prostate and lung patients undergoing radiotherapy using CBCT image projections. A mathematical model was developed in the MatLab (Mathworks, Natick, USA) environment which uses a combination of discreet cosine transforms and filtering to enhance several edge detection methods for id...

Aims To evaluate the effect of incorporating daily ultrasound scanning to reduce variation in bladder filling before prostate bed radiotherapy. The primary aim was to confirm that coverage of the planning target volume (PTV) with the 95% isodose was within tolerance when the ultrasound-determined bladder volume was within individualised patient lim...

Information on complementary and alternative medicine (CAM) use in Australian radiotherapy patients is sparse. This study investigated the type and prevalence of CAM amongst an Australian regional radiotherapy patient cohort and the disclosure of information to the consultant radiation oncologist. A single hardcopy questionnaire survey was provided...

In this study, we analyzed planning organ at risk volume (PRV) for the rectum using a series of cone beam computed tomographies (CBCTs) acquired during the treatment of prostate cancer and evaluated the dosimetric effect of different PRV definitions. Overall, 21 patients with prostate cancer were treated radically with 78Gy in 39 fractions had in t...

GOLD MARKER TRACKING IN CBCT PROJECTIONS C. Gehrke, R. Oates, H.M. Deloar, R. Prabhakar Peter MacCallum Cancer Centre, Melbourne, Victoria. INTRODUCTION: Intrafraction motion of tumour volumes can be substantial in prostate radiotherapy [1] and lung radiotherapy [2]. To adequately deal with tumour motion without image guidance requires increased tr...

Purpose: Dose escalation improves local control in prostate cancer radiotherapy. However, dose escalation is limited due to late rectal toxicity. Bladder and rectal filling / rectal gas during the course of treatment tend to alter the dose to the target volume and critical structures. In this study, an effort has been made to assess the late recta...

Aims: To obtain an estimate of dietary fibre and fluid intake in Australian men undergoing prostate radiotherapy and to establish feasibility and patient compliance with recording normal diet without intervention during the radical course of radiotherapy. Methods: Eleven participants were enrolled and treated with 74–78 Gray (Gy) to the prostate ov...

Purpose: It is known that the volume of the bladder can influence the position of the prostate or prostatic bed and the amount of small bowel in external beam radiotherapy treatment for prostate cancer. Therefore reducing the variation of the bladder volume between planning and treatment, should improve the accuracy of treatment. Patients at our ra...

Abstract Purpose : It is known that the volume of the bladder can influence the position of the prostate or prostatic bed and the amount of small bowel in external beam radiotherapy treatment for prostate cancer. Therefore reducing the variation of the bladder volume between planning and treatment, should improve the accuracy of treatment. Patients...