Proton Beam Radiation Therapy Equipment

Proton therapy is the most technologically advanced method to deliver radiation treatments to cancerous tumors available today.

Proton beam radiation therapy equipment.

These high energy protons are steered by magnets toward the treatment room and then to the specific part of the body being treated. Proton therapy is a type of radiation therapy a treatment that uses high energy beams to treat tumors. What equipment is used. Proton beam therapy uses special machines a cyclotron and synchrotron being the most common to generate and accelerate protons to speeds up to 60 percent the speed of light and energies of up to 250 million electron volts.

Therefore researchers hope that proton therapy will decrease the risk of serious long term complications of radiation therapy. I see proton therapy as a tool in the toolbox he says. Proton therapy also called proton beam therapy is a kind of particle therapy or radiation therapy. Cancerous cells are particularly vulnerable to attacks on dna.

Photon beam radiation therapy is another name for what is usually known as external beam radiation therapy. When it s built with traditional radiology equipment if offers you a range of services you wouldn t have with just radiation therapy alone lagasse healthcare finance news 4 25. However proton therapy still carries risk of side effects because the targeted area may contain skin muscle nerves and other important. Increased interest continued challenges.

It uses photon beams to get to the tumor but also can damage healthy tissue around the tumor. Proton therapy is a type of external beam radiotherapy that uses ionizing radiation in proton therapy medical personnel use a particle accelerator to target a tumor with a beam of protons. Radiation therapy using x rays has long been used to treat cancers and noncancerous benign tumors. A large machine called a synchrotron extracts protons from hydrogen atoms accelerating them to almost the speed of light and delivering the radiation with pinpoint accuracy.

These charged particles damage the dna of cells ultimately killing them by stopping their reproduction and thereby eliminating the tumor. Photons are used in treatments that are given by a machine called a linear accelerator. It directs proton beams at cancer cells with precision. Traditional proton therapy systems were too expensive too large and much too complex for most cancer treatment centers.

Mevion transformed radiation oncology by inventing compact proton therapy shrinking the equipment footprint and the operational and financial costs significantly while still delivering a powerful cancer fighting tool. Proton therapy is a newer type of radiation therapy that uses energy from positively charged particles called protons. This is because proton beams unlike x rays do not travel beyond the target.