Part 10. More Proton Therapy Stuff

According to the video, world wide cancer rates are declining

False

According to the video, world wide, about what fraction of people will get cancer?

1/3

In the video, what color are the magnets that surround the pipeline that makes (enables) the protons to travel to the treatment room?

Orange

According to the video, the first prototype proton accelerator was developed in what year?

1986

According to the video, the “number of x-rays” used to locate the exact position of the tumor in the patient:

2

While proton therapy has MANY great uses (including all of the diseases listed below), the video specifically states that protons are useful in treating all of the following EXCEPT:

1. eyes

2. brain

3. neck

4. breast

5. prostate

prostate

Describe the advantages of proton therapy over more common types of radiation therapy

1. Protons can be controlled to deposit their maximum energy at the tumor site

2. Very little radiation is wasted entering the body

3. The precision of protons prevents radiation from continuing beyond the tumor site

DEFINE "Conformal Therapy":

Conformal means the beam can be shaped to match the targeted tumor. So the entire tumor is treated and the surrounding tissue is spared.

What term is defined as "The point where the highest energy release occurs"?

Bragg Peak

What type of machine (a variation on a cyclotron) is described as being the machine used for proton therapy in this article?

synchrotron

The initial proton beam is accelerated to 7MV, but then stays in the vacuum tube where, depending on what depth is desired, they are accelerated to a range between what MV (minimum) and what MV (maximum)?

70-250

Food for thought...this energy (above) is WAY higher than what we use for x-rays...Why doesn't this result in nothing but a high "exit dose" in the patient (as was described for betatrons earlier this semester)?

Bragg Peak. We can control where protons release their maximum dose.