International Day of Women and Girls in Science – focus on proton beam therapy
11 February 2025
Publish date: 11 February 2025
Today, 11 February, marks the tenth anniversary of the International Day of Women and Girls in Science, which seeks to bring gender equality in science and promote role models to inspire girls and women into scientific professions.
At UCLH, there are thousands of women working in science across all services and specialities. Many of these women are also playing a significant role in clinical trials and helping to translate research into life-changing, and life-saving, treatments for patients.
Proton Beam Therapy is one area where our clinical teams are utilising the latest science to treat patients and to drive forward research to find out which patients this highly targeted radiotherapy works best for, how best to deliver it and how to measure its impact.
Btesam Tabet (pictured centre), is a therapeutic radiographer who is involved in treating patients for complex cancers with proton beam therapy. Btesam said,
“When I was at school I knew that I enjoyed science and I wanted to use my interest and passion to help care for people and treat disease.
“It’s fantastic to have the opportunity to work in the PBT department at UCLH because this is such a new and exciting treatment and there are only two NHS centres providing PBT in the country. Therapeutic radiographers play a key role as part of the multidisciplinary team treating people with cancers. We also get to be involved in clinical trials that are helping to determine other types of cancers, and other illnesses that may benefit from the treatment.
“Working in the NHS is a fantastic way of combining a love of science with a really rewarding career helping care for patients.”
As one of only two NHS centres in the UK, the UCLH PBT department has treated over 750 patients since it opened in 2021 and also runs a number of clinical trials which are coordinated by the UCLH Cancer Clinical Trials Unit and supported by the NIHR Biomedical Research Centre at UCLH and the NIHR Research Delivery Network. PBT clinical trials include those looking at the use of PBT for breast cancer, oesophageal cancer and mesothelioma among others.
