Link: New Ways to Zap Prostate CA - Medgadget - www.medgadget.com
A trio of innovations to treat prostate CA is being touted by the University of Wisconsin-Madison:
Directionally emitting radioactive sources, a device for placing needles and seeds, and a super-fast treatment-planning method were developed by UW-Madison engineering physics professor Douglass Henderson and medical physics associate professor Bruce Thomadsen.
To eradicate diseased tissue, physicians implant up to 100 radioactive seeds in the prostate. Like a tiny grain of rice, each seed is cylindrically shaped and emits radiation in all directions-increasing its likelihood of zapping healthy tissue, too.
So, borrowing a concept from nuclear materials handling, Henderson and Thomadsen designed directional seeds-sources with vertical shielding along one side. "I think nobody's done it before because they look at these sources, which are only eight-tenths of a millimeter in outer diameter, and they say there isn't enough space to put shielding," says Thomadsen. "We found you can compress things and you can do it."
As a result, they can implant seeds, particularly at the boundaries between healthy and diseased tissue, that steer radiation where it's needed most.
The press release...
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