ptjunkie

ptjunkie t1_ivnun4u wrote

This proton therapy system isn’t really intended for limbs. It specializes in sensitive areas where you need the radiation dose to penetrate the skin, but not exit the other side of the body. Typical uses are ocular, brain, and prostate.

I suspect that they are just testing this FLASH delivery on less sensitive areas before they blast someone in the head with it.

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ptjunkie t1_ivntufc wrote

I don’t think there is a benefit from doing it all at once. You can just rotate and dynamically collimate the beam to hit it over a longer period of time with the same effect.

Not to mention that multiple angles would require multiple beams, or complicated beam splitters to change the energy levels for the changing depth of tumor from different angles.

In practice, most treatment plans are delivered in fractions anyway, to synchronize the radiation delivery with the cancer cell life cycle.

They aren’t trying to burn the tumor out, they are trying to snuff out the tumor cells as the body heals around it.

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