Advancement in radiation treatment

The proton beam treatment has been used for some time now, but the FLASH treatment is pretty new stuff. We were just beginning to read about FLASH when my brother was being treated 2 & 3 years ago.
The UK article kind of leads one to imagine the FLASH treatment and it's positive effects happen in "one second".
Research has shown that not to be the case and that to be only 1/2 accurate. The treatment is in seconds or even milliseconds, but it still takes some time for the treatment's effects to work on the tumors.
It has been used on at least one human patient in Switzerland's Lausanne Univ Hosp with good results but the healing did still take some time.

Next, Loo moved onto the headline act: the first case report of FLASH radiotherapy in a human patient. Published by researchers at Lausanne University Hospital a few days before the AAPM meeting, the paper described treatment of a 75-year-old man with widely spread cutaneous T-cell lymphoma. The patient had undergone over 110 localized radiotherapy courses for different lesions over the past decade, with good tumour control but severe skin toxicity.

In this study, the team treated a 3.5-cm wide ulcerated lesion, using an Oriatron linac to deliver 15 Gy in 90 ms. Notably, the patient felt no sensation during treatment. At day 15, the tumour was healing; optical coherence tomography showed some thickening at the skin surface in the treated region, but no breakdown at the dermis–epidermis interface. Five months later, the patient’s tumour was completely healed with no toxicity.

“These results are very intriguing,” said Loo. “This is suggestive, though not conclusive, of a FLASH effect in a human patient and certainly a demonstration of clinical feasibility of delivering FLASH.”

physicsworld.com/a/flash-radiotherapy-from-preclinical-promise-to-the-first-human-treatment/


The big positive to this type treatment (as I understand it) should be lower costs compared to traditional proton treatment, virtually no patient discomfort, and a LOT less side effects and close to zero lingering cardio pulmonary damage.

No matter what, any advances in this treatment is a good thing and even if it turns out not to be as promising as it now looks, part of any success is ruling out what doesn't work..

Any advancement against cancer is a good thing. I hope this is all they think it is and more.

Just some trivia on the subject I hadn't heard before:

"Trump pioneered the radiation therapy used in cancer treatment."

John G Trump, the President's uncle. Interestingly he also was one of few that combed over Nikola Tesla's clsssified research for the government upon his death.


burlingtonretro.com/2018/09/28/50-years-ago-this-month-sept-edition/

more cancer news....
www.bbc.com/news/health-51182451


A newly-discovered part of our immune system could be harnessed to treat all cancers, say scientists.



The Cardiff University team discovered a method of killing prostate, breast, lung and other cancers in lab tests.



The findings, published in Nature Immunology, have not been tested in patients, but the researchers say they have "enormous potential".



Experts said that although the work was still at an early stage, it was very exciting.



What have they found?

Our immune system is our body's natural defence against infection, but it also attacks cancerous cells.



The scientists were looking for "unconventional" and previously undiscovered ways the immune system naturally attacks tumours.



What they found was a T-cell inside people's blood. This is an immune cell that can scan the body to assess whether there is a threat that needs to be eliminated.



The difference is this one could attack a wide range of cancers.



"There's a chance here to treat every patient," researcher Prof Andrew Sewell told the BBC.



He added: "Previously nobody believed this could be possible.



"It raises the prospect of a 'one-size-fits-all' cancer treatment, a single type of T-cell that could be capable of destroying many different types of cancers across the population."