Radiation, or radiotherapy, is a popular conventional cancer treatment that uses radiation to kill cancer cells or slow their growth. It may be used alone or in combination with other treatments, such as chemotherapy or surgery. According to experts, several advances have been made that show that acute exposure to ultra-high levels of radiation allows for similar anti-tumor effects but with significantly less damage to normal tissue.

When used in radiation therapy, this method is now known as Flash-RT.

In flash radiotherapy, radiation is delivered in less than a second, as opposed to traditional radiotherapy for cancer treatment, which usually takes several sessions. Furthermore, while conventional radiotherapy is super effective, it damages healthy tissues in cases like brain cancer.

Doctors say flash radiotherapy significantly cuts the number of sessions, sometimes to one or a small handful of sessions, because it delivers radiation at dose rates that are comparable to those used in traditional radiation treatments. It is 300 times more in India. This induces a phenomenon known as the flash effect, which reduces the damage that can be done to normal tissue surrounding a tumor during conventional radiation therapy, while still killing cells at the tumor site. Used to be.

What is Benefits of Flash Radiotherapy,

A patient who receives fractionated radiation therapy undergoes several treatments, all of which take several minutes. FLAS radiotherapy, or FLASH-RT, delivers the same amount of radiation, but in high-intensity bursts typically lasting less than a second. This may mean fewer and fewer treatment sessions for patients; In some cases, this may be as little as one session.

While this is more convenient for the patient, the major advantage is known as the sparing effect, where a single dose of radiation is given at this rapid rate and the surrounding tissue is spared the usual level of damage. This allows for the same level of benefit while minimizing any side effects and opens the door to higher doses of radiation than previously possible.

“Because flash radiotherapy is delivered at ultra-high dose rates, it causes less normal tissue injury. “This offers the possibility of delivering larger doses of radiation – which could result in higher cure rates for patients with resistant tumors – without increasing side effects,” Dr. John Brenneman, FASTRO, principal investigator on the trial and professor of radiation oncology and neurosurgery. The University of Cincinnati Cancer Center was previously cited times of India,

Concerns about the risks of flash radiation therapy

According to experts, even though there is overwhelming and growing evidence that Flash-RT works, How it works is largely a mysteryMany different types of theories exist, and many factors are likely to contribute. There are many aspects of Flash-RT that are still being tested and manipulated to understand how to make it more effective.

Scientists say ultra-high-dose radiation affects not only the tumor but the tumor microenvironment. There are some potentially interesting implications for the entire body that extend beyond just the tumor.

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