We use cookies to understand how you use our site and to improve your experience. This includes personalizing content and advertising. To learn more, click here. By continuing to use our site, you accept our use of cookies. Cookie Policy.

Features Partner Sites Information LinkXpress
Sign In
Advertise with Us
GLOBETECH PUBLISHING LLC

Download Mobile App




Flash RT Could Deliver Radiation Dosage Within One Second

By MedImaging International staff writers
Posted on 21 Jan 2020
Print article
A new study details how proton radiation can be used to theoretically give a cancer patient their entire course of radiotherapy (RT) in one rapid treatment.

Developed by researchers at the University of Pennsylvania (Penn; Philadelphia, USA), ultrahigh-dose-rate (FLASH) proton RT can deliver an entire radiation dose in an extremely short time span via double scattered protons and computed tomography (CT) guidance. Using a mouse model of pancreatic tumors, the effect of FLASH RT versus standard dose rate RT on both tumors and normal tissue was measured using pancreatic flank tumors in syngeneic C57BL/6J mice, with analysis of fibrosis and stem cell repopulation in the small intestine after abdominal irradiation.

The results showed that whole abdominal FLASH proton RT at 15 Gy significantly reduced the loss of proliferating cells in intestinal crypts, compared with standard proton RT. Studies with local intestinal irradiation at 18 Gy revealed a reduction to near baseline levels of intestinal fibrosis, compared with standard proton RT. The researchers also found that FLASH proton RT spared healthy tissue. The study was published in the February 2020 issue of the International Journal of Radiation Oncology, Biology, and Physics.

“We've been able to develop specialized systems to generate FLASH doses, demonstrate that we can control the proton beam, and perform a large number of experiments to help us understand the implications of FLASH radiation that we simply could not have done with a more traditional research setup,” said co-senior author James Metz, MD, director of the Penn Roberts Proton Therapy Center. “Using this system, we found that FLASH proton RT decreases acute cell loss and late fibrosis after whole-abdomen and focal intestinal RT, whereas tumor growth inhibition is preserved between the two modalities.”

FLASH RT involves the ultra-fast delivery of radiation at dose rates several orders of magnitude greater than those currently in routine clinical practice. In order to eradicate tumors, all cancerous cells must be killed, with normal tissue being spared from radiation damage as much as possible. Ultra-fast dose rates allow normal tissue tolerance levels to be exceeded, at least in animal models, with a greater probability of tumor control and little normal tissue damage. One mechanism suggested is that FLASH consumes all available oxygen and liberates significantly more electrons, resulting in many more ionization events than at conventional dose rates.

Related Links:
University of Pennsylvania

Gold Member
Solid State Kv/Dose Multi-Sensor
AGMS-DM+
New
Computed Tomography (CT) Scanner
Aquilion Serve SP
New
Portable X-Ray Unit
AJEX240H
Under Table Shield
3 Section Double Pivot Under Table Shield

Print article

Channels

Ultrasound

view channel
Image: Structure of the proposed transparent ultrasound transducer and its optical transmittance (Photo courtesy of POSTECH)

Ultrasensitive Broadband Transparent Ultrasound Transducer Enhances Medical Diagnosis

The ultrasound-photoacoustic dual-modal imaging system combines molecular imaging contrast with ultrasound imaging. It can display molecular and structural details inside the body in real time without... Read more

Imaging IT

view channel
Image: The new Medical Imaging Suite makes healthcare imaging data more accessible, interoperable and useful (Photo courtesy of Google Cloud)

New Google Cloud Medical Imaging Suite Makes Imaging Healthcare Data More Accessible

Medical imaging is a critical tool used to diagnose patients, and there are billions of medical images scanned globally each year. Imaging data accounts for about 90% of all healthcare data1 and, until... Read more

Industry News

view channel
Image: The acquisition will expand IBA’s medical imaging quality assurance offering (Photo courtesy of Radcal)

IBA Acquires Radcal to Expand Medical Imaging Quality Assurance Offering

Ion Beam Applications S.A. (IBA, Louvain-La-Neuve, Belgium), the global leader in particle accelerator technology and a world-leading provider of dosimetry and quality assurance (QA) solutions, has entered... Read more
Copyright © 2000-2024 Globetech Media. All rights reserved.