“I still remember the first day of my PhD project, in 2009. My supervisor showed me an image and said it was my job to improve it. But what was I looking at? And what had to be improved? It took me a while to start asking these questions. The image turned out to be a Cone Beam CT scan from a lung cancer patient. It wasn’t very clear: there was noise caused by the patient’s breathing during the scan. Using mathematical models, I managed to extend the scan time virtually without extending the scan time for the patient. I also used anatomical information to fill in the noise. When I went back to China in 2014, I’d initially expected to write a few papers and finish my thesis quickly, but things didn’t work out that way. I started my own company in 2016: LinkingMed. We help radiation oncologists across China create better treatment plans using Artificial Intelligence, a technology that was hardly available in 2009. China has the most cancer patients in the world. Now every patient gets a quality radiation plan, no matter where they live or receive their treatment.” Hua Zhang will defend his thesis on October 29.
Research at the Netherlands Cancer Institute is financially supported by KWF Dutch Cancer Society.
prof. dr. ir. J.J. Sonke
dr. L.S. Ploeger