The Beam Therapy For Eliminating Cancer

Furthermore, X-ray of higher energy than required for imaging is used for radiation therapy. The radiation therapy makes use of ionization radiation (and no images) for the treatment of diseases, such as

There are several ways radiation therapy can be delivered. Radiation therapy can be external or internal. The most common way is by external radiation in which a radiation is directed at the tumor from a machine (Dollinger, Rosenbaum 62). Internal or systemic radiotherapy delivers radiation by giving a radioactive source intravenously or by injection (62). Depending on the type of cancer, some people are treated with both types of therapy.

Many hospitals in the greater Baltimore area use CyberKnife to provide a non-invasive substitute for surgery. Despite the name, CyberKnife involves no cutting, scalpels, knives, or pain. It's a technologically sophisticated system which applies strong radiation with pinpoint accuracy to treat cancerous tumors. Some tumors may be impossible or impractical to operate, or you may want to explore alternatives to surgery. CyberKnife offers a painless

External Beam Therapy or (EBT) is a method for externally delivering radiation to a tumor. Beams are directed at a tumor and these high powered X-Rays can deliver radiation to the area of the tumor killing cancer cells but also healthy cells in that area as well. Although with careful planning doctors can spare the surrounding normal tissue keeping the minimal amount of healthy cells from dying around

Radiation therapy is the use special machines to convey high-energy rays that damage cancer cells and stop them from growing. The radiation can be directed to a specific area of the body or the whole body. Some side effects that come from the therapy are fatigue, hair loss, nausea, or red, dry, itchy skin.

Radiation therapy is the ionization of atoms in tissues resulting in formation of highly reactive radicals in a well-defined, restricted volume (1). In other words, ionizing radiations are used to eradicate tumors and at the same time preserve structure and function of normal tissue. A limitation is prevented from being a problem. If bone marrow or neuronal cells are destroyed or injured, they do not regenerate. However, with radiation therapy, these cells are often saved from injury or destruction, unless the tumor is infecting bone marrow or neuronal cells. Today, radiation therapy is the most popular type of cancer therapy in use. It is used to treat one-half to two-thirds of all cancers, which translates to more than ten percent of the population

According to the American Cancer Society, nearly 161,360 new cases of prostate cancer are expected to be diagnosed with an estimated 26,730 prostate-cancer specific deaths in 2017. Prostate cancer is the third leading cause of cancer death in American men, behind lung and colorectal cancer. Current available treatments for prostate cancer include active surveillance, surgery, radiation therapy (external beam or/and brachytherapy), cryosurgery, hormone therapy, chemotherapy, vaccine treatment or bone directed treatment (1). External beam radiation therapy is a standard option in treating clinically localized prostate cancer. Prostate radiation treatment can be delivered using image guided conformal radiation therapy

According to the American Cancer Society, nearly 161,360 new cases of prostate cancer are expected to be diagnosed with an estimated 26,730 prostate-cancer specific deaths in 2017. Prostate cancer is the third leading cause of cancer death in American men, behind lung and colorectal cancer. Current available treatments for prostate cancer include active surveillance, surgery, radiation therapy (external beam or/and brachytherapy), cryosurgery, hormone therapy, chemotherapy, vaccine treatment or bone directed treatment. This paper will discuss the implementation of low dose rate (LDR) brachytherapy for treatment of prostate cancer. It will discuss available sources and equipment

In case of using external beam radiation therapy the radiation beam that helps to treat the cancer will be delivered to reach tumor cells through an external machine that found outside the body.

Proton therapy is a form of radiation therapy that allows large doses of radiation to be aimed and delivered directly at a tumor while doing little damage to the surrounding healthy tissues. Typical radiation treatments send X-rays directly through the tumor, and passes out the other side of the body, simultaneously damaging most of the healthy tissue when entering and exiting the body. Protons slow down when they hit the body and gradually decelerate and come to a stop, depositing most of their radiation at this point, called the Bragg peak. If you force a beam of protons so that they stop just inside a tumor (which has been done), a maximum dose of radiation can be delivered while minimizing side effects and keeping nearby tissue safe.

The tumor is located using computed tomography (CT) or magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) tests and marked on the patient's body. (American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) n.d). The patient will often be fitted into an exact and reproducible position to avoid the tumor moving out of the beam. (Proton Therapy Center, n. d.). Once transported to the gantry using an automatic transport system the treatment is delivered in the Gantry where the protons leave the cyclotron and magnets direct them to the tumor. (Scripps 2013). The number of treatment sessions depends on the type and stage of the cancer.

About one in two people born today will be diagnosed with some form of cancer in their lifetime (ref 1 cancer research uk). Almost two-thirds of all cancer patients receive some form of radiation therapy during the course of treatment predominantly with external-beam photon therapy (ref 40). Proton beam therapy (PBT) is a novel form of external beam radiotherapy technique that utilises positively charged particles in cancer management (ref required). However, the idea of using charged particles for cancer treatment is not new. Robert R. Wilson was a famous American phycist who proposed that, heavy particles could be used to treat cancer (Wilson, 1946). Thereafter, in 1954, the first cancer patient was treated using PBT at the Berkeley Radiation Laboratory in America and at Uppsala in Sweden in 1957. To date, over 60 000 patients with different cancer have been treated with PBT worldwide (ref 70).

In 2007, it is predicted that almost 1.5 million people will be diagnosed with cancer in the United States (Pickle et al., 2007). More than half of these cancer patients will undergo the use of radiation as a means for treating cancer at some point during the course of their disease (Perez and Brady, 1998). Cancer, a disease caused by an uncontrollable growth of abnormal cells, affects millions of people around the world. Radiotherapy is one of the well known various methods used to treat cancer, where high powered rays are aimed directly at the tumor from the outside of the body as external radiation or an instrument is surgically placed inside the body producing a result of internal radiation. Radiation is delivered to the cancerous regions of the body to damage and destroy the cells in that area, terminating the rapid growth and division of the cells. Radiation therapy has been used by medicine as a treatment for cancer from the beginning of the twentieth century, with its earliest beginnings coming from the discovery of x-rays in 1895 by Wilhelm Röntgen. With the advancements in physics and computer programming, radiation had greatly evolved towards the end of the twentieth century and made the radiation treatment more effective. Radiation therapy is a curative treatment approach for cancer because it is successful in killing cancerous tumor cells and stop them from regenerating.

machine with the active parts being 201 sources of radioactive cobalt-60. These gamma rays from the cobalt-60 sources converge on the targeted tissue and destroy it. The surrounding part of the brain is left unaffected because the individual beams are not strong enough to destroy tissue that is passed through on the way to the target. The combined effect of the 201 beams is strong enough to destroy the abnormality in about 30 minutes though. The gamma rays are directed by sophisticated computer technology, thereby eliminating the sources of error that are encountered during invasive procedure by surgeons operating manually.

The field size and gantry angles chosen are typical of clinical plans for the same 15 patients as used to design phantom 2. A field size of 10 x 10cm, was used for all fields. Gantry angles of 00-3150-2700 and 00-600-1200 were used for phantom 1 and 2 respectively. Tables 4 and 5 show beam information for the first and second phantoms, respectively. The energy used for the plans was 6MV because lung cancer is treated clinically with 6MV in HOF Hospital 10 MV beam is not used because considered very high energy and risky to the lungs. Wedges were used for beam one and three- the angle of the wedge is 60/60 for each beam. Figure 12 and 13 show the plan for phantoms 1 and 2, with the isocentre and dose points measured.