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Leukemia Technician Essay

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Background
1903
Alexander Graham proposed placing founts of radium inside or near tumors.
1936
John Lawrence made an artificial radionuclide when he treated a leukemia patient using phosphorus-32.
1962
David Kuhl introduced the basis of what would become SPECT (single positron emission computerized tomography) and PET (positron emission tomography) scans.
1974
First PET scan camera built for human studies.
1983
Henry Wagner successful carried out the first PET scan of a neuroreceptor (membrane receptor protein that gets activated by a neurotransmitter) on himself.

Nuclear imaging a branch of medical imaging that consists of small doses of radioactive material into the body to diagnose and determine diseases like cancer, …show more content…

Nuclear medicine is traced back to all sorts of sciences like physics, engineering, and chemistry. It is said that John Lawrence is the father of nuclear imaging because he was the first person ever to treat a leukemia patient with a radioisotope. From then on, a number of doctors experimented with patients with blood disorders and cancer by use of radioisotopes and were successful as well. One doctor’s procedure to halt the growth of cancer on the thyroid became the turning point in medical history. The beginnings of organ screening, for example PET scans, were born.
Pros and Cons
Pros
Cons
Efficient for supplying large amounts of energy
A powerful, dangerous weapon in war that could potentially kill of all of mankind
In the medical field, it is used to diagnose diseases and portray a more accurate and elaborate image of inside the body.
Nuclear waste could last up to five hundred thousand years
Doesn’t give off as much waste as coal or fossil fuels
Could lead to malignant cancers and birth …show more content…

I’m inferring that most people only acknowledge the incidents related to radiation and such and nothing about how it benefits us, besides that it provides us with electricity. People don’t know that radioactivity is being put in patients to potentially save their lives. People don’t know how much nuclear chemistry has changed the face of science and society. People don’t know enough. I chose nuclear medicine as my topic to show mankind that nuclear chemistry isn’t all that bad. I wrote an editorial article because I know I could easily portray my perspective on it all and explain how it’s been working in the medical industry

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