Dr. Cynthia Eccles, DPhil, MRT(T/MR)

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Availability

Available to supervise students and mentor fellows, residents, and radiation therapists on research projects. Open to collaborations in MR-guided adaptive radiotherapy, radiation motion management, cancer microbiome interactions, and exercise oncology.

Area of Study / Keywords

Primary keywords: Adaptive Radiotherapy; MR-Linac; Motion Management; Radiation Therapy-Microbiome Interactions; Precision Radiation Oncology; Secondary keywords: Image-Guided Radiotherapy (IGRT); Radiomics; Exercise Oncology; Pediatric Radiation Toxicity; Radiation Therapy Research Capacity

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About

I am an academic clinician-scientist (radiation therapist, and MRI technologist) working at the intersection of advanced radiotherapy, workforce innovation, and precision oncology. As a clinical academic, my background spans direct clinical trial delivery, implementing complex technologies (such as MR-guided adaptive radiotherapy), establishing national research training programs (such as co-founding and co-leading the CRUK RadNet Allied Health Professional Doctoral Academy), and leading interdisciplinary research teams. I completed a DPhil in Radiobiology at the University of Oxford, an MSc in HealthCare Leadership at the University of Liverpool, and have held clinical-academic leadership roles across leading international cancer centres in Canada and the UK. I serve as an Associate Professor in Radiation Therapy at the University of Alberta, hold an Honorary Clinical Chair at the University of Manchester, and conduct my research program through the Department of Oncology in collaboration with Cancer Care Alberta.

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Research

Modern radiation therapy allows us to deliver high-precision doses to tumours, but key challenges remain: accounting for real-time anatomical motion, adapting to biological changes during treatment, and understanding why individual patients experience varying levels of side effects. My work focuses on optimizing radiation delivery through real-time adaptation based on imaging, while exploring biological and lifestyle factors that influence treatment response and long-term toxicity.  

Current projects:

• Adaptive Radiotherapy & Motion Management (Translating Manchester Work): Building on my work in the UK on MR-guided radiotherapy, we use serial imaging on advanced treatment platforms to refine real-time target tracking, deformable image registration, and adaptive dose accumulation. Leveraging the University of Alberta’s ecosystem in AI and data science, alongside regional clinical technology partnerships, we want to explore how AI-driven autosegmentation, real-time image registration, and predictive motion modeling can enhance online adaptive workflows for mobile pelvic and abdominal tumours.

• RT-Microbiome Interactions (Active Trial Pipeline): Investigating how gut microbial profiles influence treatment response and side effect during abdominal radiotherapy. We will pair prospective observational studies in SABR patients with biobank control cohorts (e.g., from Alberta’s Tomorrow Project) to identify specific microbial signatures linked to radiation side effects and how to manage them through dietary interventions - with future scope to integrate machine learning models for multi-omic biomarker discovery and toxicity prediction.  

• Integrative Survivorship & Paediatric Risk Modelling (Aspirational & Expanding Collaborations): We are looking to establish inter-disciplinary research streams to integrate structured exercise oncology interventions into active radiation regimens. In parallel, we will collaborate on historical radiation dose reconstructions to model and mitigate long-term side effects in paediatric cancer survivors.

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Teaching

I am currently co-supervising undergraduate research projects and will be teaching/co-teaching core research methods and dissertation modules for the BSc Radiation Therapy program. Parallel to my undergraduate teaching, I am working with the BSc Radiation Therapy faculty to develop a dedicated Radiation Therapy Graduate Studies track within the Department of Oncology to train the next generation of advanced practice and academic radiation therapists. 

As I build my research programme and launch the Radiation Therapy Graduate Studies stream, I will be seeking enthusiastic graduate students (MSc/PhD), postdocs, and research radiation therapists, and welcome inquiries from prospective trainees and collaborators.  

To find out more about how to navigate a clinical academic journey as a radiation therapist you can watch my MAHSC Inaugural Honorary Lecture: Exploring the Journey of Radiotherapy Research reflecting on career pathways, MR-guided adaptive radiotherapy, and interdisciplinary collaboration https://healthinnovationmanchester.com/exploring-the-journey-of-radiotherapy-research-professor-cynthia-eccles-mahsc-inaugural-honorary-lecture/

Marianne Aznar, Shermaine Pan, Bernadette Brennan, Frances Charlwood, Angela Davey, Lucy Davies, Cynthia Eccles, Ruth Forman, Emma Foster-Thomas, Mark. N. Gaze, Callum Gillies, Daniel. J. Indelicato, Geert Janssens, Sarah Kelly, Matthew Krasin, Koen. B. Krommenhoek, Henry Mandeville, Thomas Melichar, Peter Sitch, Olga Slater, Ed Smith, Michael Suttie, Vivian Tang, Marcel van Herk, Eliana Vasquez Osorio, Gillian Whitfield, Marinka Hol

EJC Paediatric Oncology. 2026 June; 10.1016/j.ejcped.2026.100516

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James Tallon, Claire Nelder, Benedict Dobby, Alice Greenwood-Wilson, Rachael Bailey, Michael Dubec, Andrew McPartlin, John Gaffney, Marcel van Herk, Ananya Choudhury, Cynthia L. Eccles

Journal of Medical Imaging and Radiation Sciences. 2026 May; 10.1016/j.jmir.2026.102196

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J. Zhong, F. Slevin, S. Brown, M. Serra, P. Bownes, C. Thompson, R. Reed, K. Reeves, M. Dubec, C. Eccles, R. Chuter, Y.M. Tsang, N.J. Taylor, C.M.L. West, D. Buckley, R. Alonzi, A. Scarsbrook, A. Choudhury, P. Hoskin, A.M. Henry

Clinical Oncology. 2026 April; 10.1016/j.clon.2026.104085

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Yat Man Tsang, Siret Kivistik, Lynsey Devlin, Valbona Bali, Erica Bennett, Jenna Dean, Hannah Dyer, Cynthia Eccles, Laurent Marmy, Melissa Martel, Kenton Thompson, Prakash Umbarkar, Michael Velec, Mark Warren, Aileen Duffton

2026 January; 10.2139/ssrn.6642159

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Jim Zhong, Marta Kobus, Priyamvada Maitre, Anubhav Datta, Cynthia Eccles, Michael Dubec, Damien McHugh, David Buckley, Andrew Scarsbrook, Peter Hoskin, Ann Henry, Ananya Choudhury

RadioGraphics. 2023 November; 10.1148/rg.230052

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MJ Dubec, J Gaffney, A Datta, DL Buckley, R Little, A Clough, C Hague, M Berks, S Cheung, A Salah, CL Eccles, RG Bristow, D Higgins, JH Naish, J Matthews, M van Herk, GJ Parker, A Choudhury, JP O'Connor, A McPartlin

International Journal of Radiation Oncology Biology Physics. 2022 November; 10.1016/j.ijrobp.2022.07.421

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Mairead Daly, Alan Mcwilliam, Ganesh Radhakrishna, Ananya Choudhury, Cynthia Eccles

Acta Oncologica . 2022 May; 10.1080/0284186X.2022.2073186

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M Dubec, A Datta, A Clough, DL Buckley, RA Little, M Berks, S Cheung, C Eccles, D Higgins, JH Naish, JC Matthews, M van Herk, RG Bristow, GJ Parker, P Hoskin, A McPartlin, A Choudhury, JP O'Connor

Radiotherapy and Oncology. 2022 May;

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Richard Speight, Michael Dubec, Cynthia L Eccles, Ben George, Ann Henry, Trina Herbert, Robert I Johnstone, Gary P Liney, Hazel McCallum, Maria A Schmidt

Physics in Medicine & Biology. 2021 March; 10.1088/1361-6560/abdc30

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R. Hales, J. Rodgers, L. Whiteside, G. Budgell, J. Berresford, A. Choudhury, C. Eccles

Radiotherapy and Oncology. 2020 November;

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