Marija Popovic

Assistant Professor

Bronfman Department of Oncology, McGill University

Other appointments:

Medical Physicist, McGill University Health Centre

Medical Physics Unit, McGill University

Address:                          

Cedars Cancer Centre, Medical Physics, DS1.7141
McGill University Health Centre - Glen Site
1001 boul. Décarie
Montréal, QC H4A 3J1

Telephone:

x44157

E-mail:

marija.popovic [at] mcgill.ca

Education:

PhD (Med Phys), McMaster (2007); Residency (Radiation Oncology Physics), Juravinski Cancer Centre (2009).

Research focus:

Adaptive radiation therapy; image guided radiation therapy; advancing treatment planning techniques for head and neck cancer; the tools for decision making processes in the context of radiotherapy; biases with the treatment planning process; intraoperative radiotherapy.
Professional background:

Dr. Marija Popovic is a board certified staff Medical Physicist at McGill University Health Centre and an Affiliate Member in the Medical Physics Unit, McGill University.  Her primary research interest is in adaptive radiotherapy and the actual distribution of radiation dose accumulated in normal tissues over the complete course of radiation therapy.  The patient anatomy changes over the course of a treatment, and this compromised the accuracy of the planned dose distribution.  The desired accuracy can only be achieved through the development of robust methods that track the accumulation of dose within various tissues of the body throughout the course of radiotherapy.  There is an immediate clinical need to develop processes to identify the patients who will benefit the most from adaptive radiotherapy.  In addition, the processes involved must be streamlined and flawless in order to be clinically useful.  Projects associated with this goal include accurate dose calculation and dose assessment on daily CBCT images, deformable registration, automatic contour segmentation and dose accumulation.  In addition, the development of automatic planning templates will make the re-planning process less time-consuming and viable in a busy clinical setting.

After graduating from Memorial University of Newfoundland in 2001 with a B.Sc.Hon in Physics and Applied Mathematics, Dr. Popovic started her graduate studies under supervision of Dr. Fiona McNeill in the Medical Physics and Applied Radiation Sciences Department at McMaster University.  Her thesis focused on the use of x-ray fluorescence in the detection of lead in human subjects and the mathematical modeling of lead metabolism in a female body.  She completed her PhD in 2007 and thereafter commenced a Medical Physics Residency program at the Juravinski Cancer Centre in Hamilton.  In 2010, after one year at The Ottawa Hospital, Dr. Popovic joined the Medical Physics department at McGill University Health Centre as staff, continuing both her clinical and research activities. 

 

Back to top