Scientists find way to kill cancer in seconds
New technology helps reduce radiation therapy time and is more effective than traditional cancer treatment methods.
The Stanford University-run US National Accelerator Laboratory (SLAC) is developing a new type of acceleration technology to reduce the side effects of cancer radiation therapy, by shortening radiation sessions from minutes to seconds.
SLAC representatives said they received funding to launch two research projects on tumor treatment methods using X-rays and protons.
The idea behind this is to kill cancer cells so quickly that other organs and tissues don’t have time to travel during the exposure. This reduces the risk of radiation hitting and damaging healthy tissue around the tumour, allowing for more precise radiation therapy.
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New method could shorten radiation treatment sessions from minutes to seconds. |
“Using a beam of light for less than a few seconds in a treatment session would be the optimal way to manage the continuous movements of organs and tissues. This is a major advance over the methods we are currently using.”, said Billy Loo, associate professor of radiation oncology at Stanford School of Medicine.
To provide sufficiently high-intensity radiation, the new accelerator structure that he and his colleagues are working on in the two projects needs to be hundreds of times more powerful than current technology, said Sami Tantawi, a physics professor at SLAC.“The grants will help us build these structures”, he added.
The project is called PHASER. Its focus is on developing a flash delivery system for X-rays.
In today's medical devices, electrons fly through an accelerator structure that looks like a 1-meter-long tube, absorbing energy from a radiofrequency field that passes through the tube at the same time and in the same direction. The energy of the electrons is then converted into X-rays.
Over the past few years, the PHASER research team has developed and tested new acceleration structures to deliver radio frequency fields into the tube.
“Next, we will build the accelerator architecture and test the risks of the technology. Within the next three to five years, this research could result in a first practical device that can be used in clinical trials.”, Mr. Tantawi said.
With the new treatment, radiation sessions will last two to three sessions before the patient is transferred to recovery mode.