

A miniature accelerator to treat cancer - user_235711
http://home.web.cern.ch/about/updates/2015/07/miniature-accelerator-treat-cancer

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kom107
Currently work in healthcare, with bedside experience on an oncology/stem cell
transplant unit. Many thoughts on this article:

I think this is going to have a big impact on radiotheraphy once it becomes
commercially available, and hopefully, the end outcome for patients is that it
will allow them to enjoy a higher quality of life for a longer period of time.
In general, radiation is not used in the treatment of all types of cancer, and
when it is used, it this is a very high level commentary) is generally used to
shrink the size of the tumor. Frequently, it is used after other parts of the
treatment protocol have stopped working. Having said that, the mechanism of
action and features from this accelerator make it seem as though patients will
be able to recieve smaller doses of radiation therapy and therefore, will
avoid the issues that come with the treatment, allowing that higher quality of
life.

I'd be interested to see the biomedical work CERN has done around disrupting
the hedgehog pathways. I think that's where we're going to make a lot of
progress in developing actual cures for a number of cancers.

One thing I firmly believe, and wish many more people understood, is that
cancer, and cancer treatment, all comes down to chemistry. And, as we know, a
whole hell of a lot of chemistry, especially biochemistry, is related to those
lovely subatomic particles the folks at CERN are the experts on.

Cheers to this group for their new accelerator. Well done.

