RxPG News : Radiotherapy

Microbeam Radiation Therapy (MRT) Could Improve Cancer Treatment

Sat, 10 Jun 2006 13:38:00 PST

Researchers at the U.S. Department of Energys Brookhaven National Laboratory and colleagues at Stony Brook University, the IRCCS NEUROMED Medical Center in Italy, and Georgetown University say improvements they have made to an experimental form of radiation therapy that has been under investigation for many years could make the technique more effective and eventually allow its use in hospitals. Results on the improved method, which was tested in rats, will be published online this week by the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

Radiotherapy timings for colon cancer may need adjustments

Sun, 09 Apr 2006 09:58:00 PST

Scientists have unexpectedly discovered that mice with the gene defect that causes colon cancer in humans can differ from normal mice in how they respond to radiation treatments. The large intestine carrying the gene defect in mice that received staggered doses of radiation was three to four times more resistant to the radiation than in control mice.

Irradiation impairs reading development of young children

Sat, 20 Aug 2005 16:30:00 PST

Largest study of its kind finds irradiation impairs reading development of young children even if they receive lower dose because they face an average risk of treatment failure

Helical Tomotherapy : Most Advanced form of Image-Guided Intensity Modulated Radiation Therapy

Tue, 15 Mar 2005 18:19:00 PST

M. D. Anderson Cancer Center Orlando is among the first centers in the world to possess and treat cancer patients with the TomoTherapy HI·ART ® system.

Considered to be the most advanced form of image-guided intensity modulated radiation therapy (IMRT), the system will be used to treat head, neck, prostate, lung and breast cancer.

Electronic Brachytherapy : The Next Generation Radiotherapy

Sun, 13 Mar 2005 08:41:00 PST

The delivery of localized radiation treatment directly to cancer sites using high dose rate x- rays on demand has significant potential to improve cancer treatment, according to a recent symposium on Electronic Brachytherapy at the 15th Annual Meeting of the American College of Radiation Oncology (ACRO).

A Technologically Advanced Tool for Difficult-to-Treat Cancers

Mon, 28 Feb 2005 21:08:00 PST

The Elekta Beam Modulator(TM) is a precision multi-leaf collimator designed for use with Elekta's medical linear accelerators. It shapes the radiation beam to more closely conform to the exact shape of the tumor, thereby allowing greater accuracy and smaller treatment fields. This makes Elekta technology ideal for targeting typically difficult-to-treat cancers of the lung and spine, as well as other sites in the body.

Timing appears essential to combining antiangiogenesis and radiation therapy

Tue, 21 Dec 2004 17:13:00 PST

Although the earliest clinical trials of the cancer-fighting potential of antiangiogenesis drugs did not have the dramatic results that some hoped for, subsequent trials showed that combining agents that suppress blood-vessel growth with therapies that destroy cancer cells can improve patient survival. In the December issue of Cancer Cell, researchers from the Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) describe how timing may be crucial to successfully combining angiogenesis inhibitors with radiation treatment and reveal more about exactly how these drugs work to fight cancer, which is somewhat different from earlier theories.