2/2005
Innovations and trends in healthcare are what help you cope with the challenging conditions healthcare systems all over the world are facing right now. Find an interesting selection of articles from internationally renowned scientists.
The idea of using hadronic beams for therapeutic purposes goes back to the year 1946, when R. R. Wilson proposed to make use of the beneficial physical properties of fast protons and ions. Here is an overview of the different technical approaches that exist to conform the dose distribution to the target volume.
By Sven Oliver Grözinger, Ph.D.
Only two institutions worldwide use beam scanning as a method to direct the beam exactly to the malignant tissue: the Paul Scherrer Institute (PSI) in Villigen, Switzerland, and the ’Gesellschaft für Schwerionenforschung’ (GSI) in Darmstadt, Germany. Eros Pedroni, Ph.D., from PSI, and Thomas Haberer, Ph.D., from GSI, explain what makes this method so remarkable and what further developments can be expected.
Carbon ions have a decisive advantage: high tumor dosage, yet low effects on normal tissue. Furthermore, they have an increased biological effectiveness in the tumor. These particular characteristics are successfully implemented into treatment planning at the ’Gesellschaft für Schwerionenforschung’ (GSI) in Darmstadt, Germany.
By Wilma Weyrather, Ph.D., Associate Professor Michael Scholz, Ph.D., Michael Krämer, Ph.D., GSI, Darmstadt, Germany
The Jikei University Hospital Tokyo, Japan, is conducting clinical research of diffusion-weighted MRI and its potential in terms of imaging the abdomen, pelvis, and organs other than the brain. On another continent, NYU Medical Center New York is also using this method to obtain information about liver metastases. This article presents a compendium of the work done in two world-renowned institutions.
By Bachir Taouli, M.D., Department of Radiology, NYU Medical Center, New York, NY,
and Noriatsu Ichiba, M.D., Kunihiko Fukuda, M.D., Department of Radiology, Jikei University Hospital, Tokyo, Japan
In the colon and rectum, the vast majority of cancers develop very slowly, approximately over a period of 10 to 15 years, from benign precursor lesions. These lesions, so-called polyps, can undergo malignant transformations based on the adenoma-carcinoma sequence. Therefore, the resection of polyps reduces colorectal cancer mortality by over 90 percent.
By Anno Graser, M.D., and Christoph R. Becker, M.D., Department of Clinical Radiology, University of Munich, Grosshadern Campus, Munich, Germany
Studying the perfusion characteristics of tumors with dynamic CT is an exciting new area of research. Functional imaging might allow in vivo assessment of tumor microvascularity.
By Ernst Klotz
Using yttrium-90 microspheres is a new intraarterial therapy that uses beta-irradiating microspheres directly delivered to the tumor. The procedure demands the use of technologically advanced imaging equipment. A case study.
By Andrew S. Kennedy, M.D., FACRO, Wake Radiology Oncology, Cary, NC
