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medpundit |
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Wednesday, December 03, 2003British scientists have found a way to fire radioactive particles at individual cancer cells, paving the way for new forms of radiotherapy, which will be less damaging to healthy tissue. A study at Cancer Research UK’s Gray Cancer Institute in London has revealed that such microbeams of radiation can kill many more cancer cells than they hit directly, as the “zapped” cells send out signals which tell their neighbours to commit suicide. Interesting. UPDATE: A reader with experience in radiation and medicine emails: The headline "British scientists have found a way to fire radioactive particles at individual cancer cells" rang a bell for me, but it was from a long time ago. I was spelunking through the history files for an early experimental high energy electron beam linac that ran at Michael Reese from about 1957 to 1986. There was a headline in the Chicago Tribute, (circa late 1950's) "Atom Smasher Fires Electronic Bullets Against Cancer" Don't get me wrong, Reese was an early leader in electron beam treatments, and they did wonders for some tumors, (breast CA for example,) but they weren't magic bullets. In the intervening years I can think of the following ideas: Hyperthermia with radiation High LET radiation beams Neutron Beams Proton Beams All were useful, (with the possible exception of Hyperthermia,) but none really improved on the cell kill ratio between healthy and cancerous cells. Oh well. posted by Sydney on 12/03/2003 07:59:00 AM 0 comments 0 Comments: |
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