Lunch Bytes, brought to you by Sun Nuclear

Upcoming:

May 21, 2026

Join Eric Vandervoort, clinical medical physicist at The Ottawa Hospital Cancer Centre, for Role and Potential of the CyberKnife System in a Busy Cancer Center. Drawing on his expertise in stereotactic ablative radiosurgery, he will explore the capabilities of the CyberKnife robotic radiosurgery system and its role alongside conventional linacs in modern cancer care.

This session will cover key system components, imaging guidance and motion tracking, performance and dosimetric accuracy, quality assurance and end-to-end testing, as well as challenges in clinical workflow integration, emerging applications, and future directions.

Learning Objectives:

1. Understand the system components, imaging guidance, and motion tracking used by the CyberKnife robotic radiosurgery system
2. Characterize CyberKnife performance and dosimetric accuracy, including appropriate quality assurance and end-to-end testing
3. Identify challenges in efficient utilization, optimizing clinical workflows, and integration within the broader radiation medicine program
4. Explore new applications, research directions, and the future outlook for the system

Register

Past:

Inspection Insights: Common Compliance Trends

Julia Mulder, Julie‑Anna Benjamin, and Nadia Petseva explore the most common inspection findings seen in recent years and how they compare to earlier inspection periods. The speakers break down the elements of risk‑significant non‑compliance, highlight recurring patterns, and share practical steps licensees can take to prevent these issues.

Volunteerism as Professional Practice: Personal growth and collective impact through working with COMP

Dr. Kathleen Surry led a Lunch Bytes session examining how volunteer engagement and cross‑centre collaboration contribute to personal and professional growth within the Canadian medical physics community. The discussion highlighted the impact of shared initiatives across centres and outlined clear pathways for members to get involved in current and upcoming COMP activities.

Clinically driven Medical Physics Research: the What, Why and How

Dr. Eugene Wong and Dr. Michael Roumeliotis of the COMP Science Committee led a Lunch Bytes session exploring clinically driven medical physics research, emphasizing the importance of aligning research questions with real-world clinical needs. Discussion included the ongoing public debate around physician-led research, highlighted the value of long-term, holistic thinking in shaping impactful research programs, and outlined practical, short-term steps medical physicists can take to advance clinically relevant investigations.

Building a National Framework for Reirradiation in Denmark: National Collaboration, Consensus Guidelines, and Clinical Trials 

Dr. Lone Hoffman led a session focused on advancing clinical re-irradiation (reRT) practices, highlighting efforts to build national consensus on workflows, image registration, and dose accumulation. The session addressed challenges in standardizing approaches across institutions, reviewed available clinical data, and explored pre-trial QA and guideline development for the Scandinavian CURE Lung trial.

The Journey from Tom Baker Cancer Centre to Arthur Child Cancer Centre: Successes and Lessons Learned

• Discussed the process of opening a radiation medicine program in a new comprehensive cancer centre
• Identifed challenges associated with change management, program growth and clinical expansion
• Provided examples of lessons learned from the move to inform future planning

Implementing and treating VMAT TBI - Insights from Western Canada
Physicists from BC, Alberta, Saskatchewan, and Manitoba in discussing their respective VMAT-TBI techniques, learnings, and recommendations. 

The Groundbreaking Varian Ethos Therapy System: Learnings, discoveries, and future advancements
Dr. Amanda Cherpak from Nova Scotia Health delves into harnessing the power of the Varian Ethos Therapy System equipped with HyperSight imaging. With its CBCT-based adaptive therapy and advanced imaging capabilities, the Ethos machine and software has the potential to transform the way we approach radiation therapy. Learn about early commissioning, development of physics-led trials, clinical implementation and continued learnings.

Radiation Oncology Human Resource Crisis: A review of the data
Dr. Samantha Lloyd from BC Cancer shares insights from the CAPCA Oncology Strategic Planning Initiative and presents key findings from the 2023 pan-Canadian Radiation Oncology Health Human Resources Survey. This session also highlights the importance of participating in the Annual Professional Survey.

COMP’s New Strategic Priorities
Kathleen Surry, COMP President, presents on the exciting activities COMP has planned to support the new Strategic Priorities! 

Canadian AI and Big Data in Radiotherapy Alliance (CADRA) Lunch and Learn
CADRA founders Amanda Caissie, Brian Liszewski, Caitlin Gillian and Kathleen Surry as they share CADRA’s mission and vision, and explain how our work aligns with the Pan-Canadian Cancer Data Strategy.

Medical Physics & Science: Lunch Bytes is COMP's lunch and learn series designed to feed your curiosity while you feed your belly! Brought to you by Sun Nuclear, join us for these regularly for engaging virtual talks on cutting-edge topics like AI in medicine, re-irradiation, Canada’s new cancer data strategy and the existing plans COMP has in store.  

It’s the perfect blend of learning and lunchtime, bringing COMP members closer to the latest in medical physics while enjoying a relaxed and friendly atmosphere. Grab your lunch and let’s dive into some tasty knowledge!