32.3 Therapeutic uses of ionizing radiation

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• Explain the concept of radiotherapy and list typical doses for cancer therapy.

Therapeutic applications of ionizing radiation, called radiation therapy or radiotherapy    , have existed since the discovery of x-rays and nuclear radioactivity. Today, radiotherapy is used almost exclusively for cancer therapy, where it saves thousands of lives and improves the quality of life and longevity of many it cannot save. Radiotherapy may be used alone or in combination with surgery and chemotherapy (drug treatment) depending on the type of cancer and the response of the patient. A careful examination of all available data has established that radiotherapy’s beneficial effects far outweigh its long-term risks.

Medical application

The earliest uses of ionizing radiation on humans were mostly harmful, with many at the level of snake oil as seen in [link] . Radium-doped cosmetics that glowed in the dark were used around the time of World War I. As recently as the 1950s, radon mine tours were promoted as healthful and rejuvenating—those who toured were exposed but gained no benefits. Radium salts were sold as health elixirs for many years. The gruesome death of a wealthy industrialist, who became psychologically addicted to the brew, alerted the unsuspecting to the dangers of radium salt elixirs. Most abuses finally ended after the legislation in the 1950s.

Radiotherapy is effective against cancer because cancer cells reproduce rapidly and, consequently, are more sensitive to radiation. The central problem in radiotherapy is to make the dose for cancer cells as high as possible while limiting the dose for normal cells. The ratio of abnormal cells killed to normal cells killed is called the therapeutic ratio    , and all radiotherapy techniques are designed to enhance this ratio. Radiation can be concentrated in cancerous tissue by a number of techniques. One of the most prevalent techniques for well-defined tumors is a geometric technique shown in [link] . A narrow beam of radiation is passed through the patient from a variety of directions with a common crossing point in the tumor. This concentrates the dose in the tumor while spreading it out over a large volume of normal tissue. The external radiation can be x-rays, rays, or ionizing-particle beams produced by accelerators. Accelerator-produced beams of neutrons, $\text{π-mesons}$ , and heavy ions such as nitrogen nuclei have been employed, and these can be quite effective. These particles have larger QFs or RBEs and sometimes can be better localized, producing a greater therapeutic ratio. But accelerator radiotherapy is much more expensive and less frequently employed than other forms.

Water is flowing in a pipe with a varying cross-sectional area, and at all points the water completely fills the pipe. At point 1 the cross-sectional area of the pipe is 0.077 m2, and the magnitude of the fluid velocity is 3.50 m/s. (a) What is the fluid speed at points in the pipe where the cross
A particle behave like a wave and we do not why?
WAQAR
what's the period of velocity 4cm/s at displacement 10cm
What is physics
the branch of science concerned with the nature and properties of matter and energy. The subject matter of physics includes mechanics, heat, light and other radiation, sound, electricity, magnetism, and the structure of atoms.
Aluko
and the word of matter is anything that have mass and occupied space
Aluko
what is phyices
Whats the formula
1/v+1/u=1/f
Aluko
what aspect of black body spectrum forced plank to purpose quantization of energy level in its atoms and molicules
a man has created by who?
What type of experimental evidence indicates that light is a wave
double slit experiment
Eric
The S. L. Unit of sound energy is
what's the conversation like?
some sort of blatherring or mambo jambo you may say
I still don't understand what this group is all about oo
ENOBONG
no
uchenna
ufff....this associated with physics ..so u can ask questions related to all topics of physics..
what is sound?
Bella
what is upthrust
what is upthrust
Olisa
Up thrust is a force
Samuel
upthrust is a upward force that acts vertical in the ground surface.
Rodney
yes rodney's answer z correct
Paul
what is centre of gravity?
Paul
you think the human body could produce such Force
Anthony
what is wave
mirobiology
Angel
what is specific latent heat
the total amount of heat energy required to change the physical state of a unit mass of matter without a corresponding change in temperature.
fitzgerald
is there any difference between specific heat and heat capacity.....
what wave
Bryan
why medical physics even.we have a specoal branch of science biology for this.
what is physics