For many years, doctors have been treating cancer patients with radiation therapy. Radiation therapy is based on using X-rays to destroy cancer cells in the patients body. However, there is another type of treatment for cancer that is more effective than radiation. With traditional radiation therapy, doctors use kind of a blanket shot of radiation at an area of a patient's body affected by cancer. Proton-therapy allows doctors to accurately target cancer in the body and then release the radiation energy within the tumor. This therapy is called Proton-therapy and it has been around since the 1950's. Now you're probably wondering why I am including a treatment that has been around for over half a century in the future section of this blog. The reason for that is because it has not been very widely used up to this point. The equipment for Proton-therapy is incredibly expensive and there are only five locations in the United States that offer the treatment as of 2007. However, advances in technology will one day make the equipment for Proton-therapy more affordable, thus making the therapy itself more affordable. Hopefully, this powerful treatment will be able to defeat cancer one day and make the world a much happier and healthier place in the process.
Credits:
Layton, Julia. "Is proton therapy better than traditional radiation for cancer treatment?." 10 March 2007. HowStuffWorks.com. 11 August 2009.
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This is very interesting, especially since it has been around for awhile. I have never heard of cancer treatment using protons. I wonder if it will become a better choice in our future. Since technology has become so much better hopefully the cost to perform such a treatment will be less expensive. I wonder what the side affects are? Does it have the same affects as radiation treatment? Cancer is such a deadly disease so it is a very good thing when there is something which can be used to help fight it.
ReplyDeleteInteresting to know this has been around for over half a decade and this is the first I've heard of it. I am very familiar with radiation therapy and it's consequences of taking it. But one must try and survive. It is also amazing to still know we, as a society, with it's technological advances still would rather shun away people because of price. If this treatment is better for the patient, why I guess I am asking, "can't we make this available to patients in need?" Rather than make them suffer through radiation. I am proud at where we are as technology goes, but then upset we are not at the point where money is no longer an issue and we can all enjoy and take advantage of the discoveries we have made. Maybe we will never get there.
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