![]() ![]() Photons can be used to target tumors throughout the body, but the machines that shoot the particles cannot yet fire fast enough to achieve the needed dose-rate. Regardless of why it works, flash radiation seems promising in preliminary studies, though the technique does have limitations. Related: 5 Things Women Should Know About Ovarian Cancer Tumors resist traditional radiation therapy thanks in part to their lack of oxygen, so the temporary effect prompted by flash might bolster healthy cells against damage, as well as reduce the production of harmful free radicals, according to a 2019 report in the journal Clinical Oncology.īut this evidence doesn't explain why cancer cells react differently than healthy cells to the treatment more mechanisms are likely at play, Vozenin said. Research suggests that the fleeting burst of radiation may cause a dip in levels of oxygen in the healthy tissues, which typically contain far more oxygen than cancerous cells. "That's the million dollar question … we are working hard to try to understand that," Vozenin said. Exactly why that happens remains a mystery. But when the same dose of radiation is delivered at a faster rate, as with flash, healthy tissues remain unscathed. In conventional radiation therapy, a patient may undergo dozens of treatment sessions, during which time healthy tissues may become damaged long before the tumor cells perish. "If we can go to hundredths of a second, that's even better," she added. Flash pummels cells with the same total amount of radiation as existing therapies do, but rather than administering the dose over multiple weeks in minutes-long sessions, the entire treatment lasts just tenths of a second, Vozenin said. ![]() The name "flash" simply refers to the ultrafast rate at which the technique delivers radiation to target tissues. That said, each particle may be uniquely suited to target certain tumor types in specific spots in the body, meaning protons may offer the best treatment option for some patients, Cengel said. "All of these different strategies have some pros and cons." That's not to say that deploying protons to fight cancer cells is necessarily a better strategy than using photons or electrons, she added. ![]() In June 2021, CHUV and the ISREC Foundation announced that funding had been secured, thanks to the financial support of the Biltema Foundation for the next phase of the design and construction of the facility."It is unique in the sense that … it has never been done," said Marie-Catherine Vozenin, head of the radiation-oncology lab at Lausanne University Hospital in Switzerland, who was not involved in the study. The goal being to exploit the so-called FLASH effect, wherein radiation doses administered over short time periods appear to damage tumours more than healthy tissue, potentially minimising harmful side-effects. In September 2020, CERN and Switzerland’s Lausanne University Hospital (CHUV) announced their collaboration to develop the conceptual design of an innovative radiotherapy facility that would deliver high radiation doses in milliseconds instead of minutes. ![]() Many breakthrough applications in the medical field have resulted from developments in particle physics research. One such example is the use of very high-energy electrons (VHEE) for a frontier radiotherapy technique called FLASH radiotherapy, a highly targeted cancer treatment, capable of reaching deep into a patient’s body with fewer side-effects than traditional radiotherapy. FLASH An innovative electron radiotherapy technology (Video: CERN)Ĭds.cern.ch/video/CERN-VIDEO-2017-034-001 An innovative electron radiotherapy technology ![]()
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