Medical News Today reports that MIT is designing an atomic accelerator costing far less than the existing proton-beam accelerators that shoot subatomic particles into tumors. Excerpts below.
Link: MIT Cancer Treatment Could Replace X-ray
Scientists at MIT, collaborating with an industrial team, are creating a proton-shooting system that could revolutionize radiation therapy for cancer. The goal is to get the system installed at major hospitals to supplement, or even replace, the conventional radiation therapy now based on x-rays.
The fundamental idea is to harness the cell-killing power of protons -- the naked nuclei of hydrogen atoms -- to knock off cancer cells before the cells kill the patient. Worldwide, the use of radiation treatment now depends mostly on beams of x-rays, which do kill cancer cells but can also harm many normal cells that are in the way.
What the researchers envision -- and what they're now creating -- is a room-size atomic accelerator costing far less than the existing proton-beam accelerators that shoot subatomic particles into tumors, while minimizing damage to surrounding normal tissues. They expect to have their first hospital system up and running in late 2007.
Physicist Timothy Antaya, a technical supervisor in MIT's Plasma Science and Fusion Center, was deeply involved in developing the new system and is now working to make it a reality. He argues it "could change the primary method of radiation treatment" as the new machines are put in place.
The beauty of protons is that they are quite energetic, but their energy can be controlled so they do less collateral damage to normal tissues, compared to powerful x-ray beams. Protons enter the body through skin and tissue, hit the tumor and stop there, minimizing other damage.Because of their high energy and controllability, protons have been used as anti-cancer bullets in the past, with promising results. But medical centers can't easily come up with the $100 million or more needed to build a proton machine dedicated to this medical use. That's because protons are produced inside the huge, expensive atomic accelerators that are usually employed at major atomic research centers, including national laboratories.
Now, Antaya and his colleagues at MIT and at Still River Systems Inc. think they can provide the new machine for far less money, have it occupy just one moderate-size hospital treatment room, and achieve better results than x-ray therapy. MIT is licensing the technology to Still River Systems.The magnet work of the Technology and Engineering Division of the Plasma Science and Fusion Center, led by senior research engineer Joseph Minervini, is key to the new system. That work has been funded by the U.S. Department of Energy Office of Fusion Energy Science.
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