ProTRAIT

Proton radiotherapy is a novel treatment for cancer patients, with the first patient treated in the Netherlands in 2017. To address the capacity constraints of proton radiotherapy centers in the Netherlands, physicians use a so-called model-based approach for patient selection, ensuring that proton therapy is allocated optimally to those who would benefit the most compared to conventional radiotherapy. 

Considering heterogeneous protocols and data analysis pipelines, it is of paramount importance to set up the proper infrastructure that can enable a harmonized data collection and analysis platform for this model-based selection, including clinical comparisons with photon therapy. 

ProTRAIT aims to provide such an IT infrastructure based on the FAIR and federated data principles. The ProTRAIT infrastructure makes available prospective, standardized, multi-centric data from all Dutch proton and a representative group of photon therapy patients.

The project was awarded funding by KWF Kankerbestrijding in 2017 and is continuing with support of the Dutch proton radiotherapy centers.