“Someday, specialized systems could barrage cancer patients with particles to deliver a full course of radiation therapy in mere microseconds, new research suggests.
Using an emerging technique known as flash radiotherapy, doctors could eradicate tumors in a fraction of the time and at a fraction of the cost of traditional radiation therapy — at least in theory. As of yet, the lightning-fast technique has not faced formal clinical trials in human patients, although one man received the experimental treatment, researchers reported in October 2019 in the journal Radiotherapy and Oncology. Now, a new mouse study, published Jan. 9 in the International Journal of Radiation Oncology, Biology and Physics, has further demonstrated the promise of this cancer therapy.
‘It has the same tumor-control rate [as conventional radiation] but significantly less effect on normal tissue,” said study co-author Dr. Keith Cengel, an associate professor of radiation oncology at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania.'”
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