New Physics Device May Revolutionize Cancer Treatment

New Physics Device May Revolutionize Cancer Treatment: "Thomas R. Mackie, a professor at the University of Wisconsin and co-founder of the radiation therapy company TomoTherapy, will present this new design at next week's annual meeting of the American Association of Physicists in Medicine in Minneapolis.

Compared to the x rays conventionally used in radiation therapy, protons are potentially more effective, as they can deposit more cell-killing energy in their tumor targets and less in surrounding healthy tissue. However, to kill tumors, the protons must be accelerated to sufficiently high energies, which currently must be achieved in large, expensive devices called cyclotrons or synchrocyclotrons that cost hundreds of millions of dollars and occupy a room the size of basketball courts.

At the meeting, Mackie and his colleagues will present a proton-therapy design based on a much smaller device known as a 'dielectric wall accelerator' (DWA). Mackie is part of a multidisciplinary team that includes his institutions as well as Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory and the University of California, Davis.

The DWA, currently being built as a prototype at Livermore, can accelerate protons to up to 100 million electron volts in just a meter. A two-meter DWA could potentially supply protons of sufficiently high energy to treat all tumors, including those buried deep in the body, while fitting in a conventional radiation treatment room. "