Anti-Matter's Potential in Treating Cancer 216
eldavojohn writes "The BBC is taking a look at how atomic physicists are developing cancer treatments. A step past radiotherapy, the CERN institute is publishing interesting results: 'Cancer cells were successfully targeted with anti-matter subatomic particles, causing intense biological damage leading to cell death.' The press release from last year is finally sparking interest in the medical community."
brilliant (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Ah yes.. (Score:2, Insightful)
Re:What about this? (Score:3, Insightful)
People already get bombarded by radiation to kill tumor cells -- this isn't that much different, except that the damage to the tumor is more direct and probably at a higher concentration than with ordinary bursts of radiation. You get the twin effect of the anti-particles annihilating their particle counterparts and the secondary radiation (mainly gamma) given off by that annihilation.
Re:What about this? (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:Ah yes.. (Score:4, Insightful)
Or the current radition and chemical treatments?
Re:Thought Cancer was already Cured (Score:1, Insightful)
Re:A little pricey (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:So how do we administer it? (Score:4, Insightful)
Reo-virus may kill 2/3 of all cancers. (Score:5, Insightful)
You mean like this...
If only treatments like these were ready in 2005... My wife of 20 years was diagnosed with a brain tumor (GBM) Thanksgiving 2005 and died in January 13, 2006. Nothing is special any more...
Re:no poisons or radiation is required to cure can (Score:3, Insightful)
WTF? Tell that to the late Dr. Atkins. Hell, there are plenty of books out there now specifically about treating cancer through diet (though most are responsible enough to view it as a supplement to rather than replacement for traditional therapies), and they sell. If your dad had any actual proof, trust me, he'd be a rich man.
Re:brilliant (Score:5, Insightful)
For that matter, since cancer cells tend to generate heat, the cancerous region should be nearer the point of cell death than non-cancerous tissue. Use microwaves to raise the water temperature such that healthy cells will still be below the threshold but cancer cells are cooked.
Alternatively, cancer cells must pull in far more amino acids than healthy cells simply to duplicate so rapidly. Synthesize some amino acids that use an isotope you know the frequency for a-la x-ray fluorescence. Beam in some x-rays at the required frequency. The isotope will absorb them and emit electrons. Because the cancerous cells have more of the isotope, they will have more electrons blasting around. I would have thought you could do some really nasty things to the cancer before the healthy cells even noticed the extra charge on their bill.
Re:Reo-virus may kill 2/3 of all cancers. (Score:3, Insightful)
I *almost* hope *you* suffer a terrible loss, but two wrongs don't make a right.
People like you are good for society in a way though. You're a doctoral dissertation waiting to happen for some lucky psychology major.
They are NOT using Anti-matter (Score:3, Insightful)
E=mc^2, anyone? Anti-matter would be impossible to use here.
The misconception arises in that the methods used to create anti-matter (i.e. particle accelerators) are being employed in order to treat cancer. Think of it more as a particle beam treatment. Instead of using X-rays, they are using ion-beams to target the cancer. This reduces collateral damage by orders of magnitude and so is an extremely good alternative to Chemotherapy. NB: It is not a cure; at least not at this stage. There is more news to come next week from the same people, btw... good news!
Please can someone change the article to correct that anti-matter is not being used.