MIT Studies Radiation Tissue Damage
Posted on: Tuesday, 28 February 2006, 18:00 CST
Massachusetts Institute of Technology researchers have devised a new method for examining how radiation damages normal body tissue.
The scientists say knowledge gained may make it possible to reduce side effects for cancer patients and to develop treatments for radiation exposure.
About 50 percent of all cancer patients are treated with radiation therapy, either alone or in combination with some other type of treatment. While radiation can be very effective in killing tumor cells, it also kills nearby normal tissue as well.
The long-term effects that occur six months to a year or more after exposure aren't reversible like the short-term ones, and they are a big unknown, said Associate Professor Jeffrey Coderre of MIT's department of nuclear science and engineering.
We've come up with a tool to selectively irradiate blood vessels to study how radiation damages normal tissue over both the short term and the long term, said Coderre, the study's co-author. This is the first time it has been possible to do this.
Lead author of the study is Bradley Schuller, a MIT graduate student.
The research is detailed online in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
Source: United Press International
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