Physics Current Event Article Traditionally, for about 40 years now, cancer therapy has been using protons to treat tumors. This treatment has been in use since 1946, after Robert Wilson, a Berkeley physicist offered it as an option to less effective X-rays method. However, protons, as well as X-rays cause damage to DNA because they use radiation. According to Michael Holzscheiter, a spokesman for Geneva Cerns particle accelerator laboratory, there a new, revolutionary safer method for treating cancer antiproton beams, which has already been tried out and shown positive results. According to Holzscheiter, proton beams cause much less damage to healthy tissues than both X-rays and protons. The Swiss physics tested antiprotons (oppositely charged protons) with an idea for this method to be used in treating cancer.
While an X-ray puts energy along its entire path through the entire body, an antiproton beam works on a focused area of hamster cells suspended two centimeters deep in gelatin. The tests also showed that antiprotons are more effective than protons because they deposit more energy at their end point than protons do. Now scientists want to compare antiprotons to carbon and ion beams, and to try irradiating cells at greater surface depth. While proton and carbon ion beams treatment centers are wide-spread around the world (there are around 30 proton beam therapy centers and 3 carbon ion centers in the world at the moment), antiproton treatments still have a long way to go before a clinic can be opened. First of all, antiprotons need to undergo all tests to prove their effectiveness and safety. Secondly, antiproton clinic would cost at least 2 or 3 times more than a modern carbon ion facility (500 mln Euro for antiproton clinic vs. 150-200 mln for carbon ion clinic).
The Term Paper on Carbon-14 Dating: an Invaluable Yardstick in the Chronology of Humans
Archeologists use many methods to analyze data from the past. One scientific tool they use is to analyze the radioactive decay of chemical elements found in plant and animal remains, pottery, and even in rocks. Radiocarbon dating, also known as carbon-14 dating, has been one of the most important radioisotope dating methods used. This scientific tool, which was first developed by Willard F. Libby ...
The good news for antiproton beam method is that NanoLife Sciences (a U.S.
company) has already purchased intellectual property rights for this technology and is already engaged in a project that aims to design a particle accelerator that uses antiprotons. Article used: http://www.rsc.org/chemistryworld/News/2006/Novemb er/03110602.asp Antimatter cancer treatment 03 November 2006 The idea that antimatter beams could treat cancer might seem ridiculous. But researchers working at Cerns particle accelerator laboratory inGeneva dont think so. They have just reported a successful first experiment into the biological effects of antiproton radiation on living cells. As spokesperson Michael Holzscheiter explained, the international team found that an antiproton beam was four times more effective than a proton beam at killing a focused area of hamster cells suspended two centimetres deep in gelatine. The experimental setup was intended to simulate irradiating a section of tissue in the body. Proton beams have been used as conventional cancer therapy for at least 40 years, followingBerkeley physicist Robert Wilsons suggestion in 1946 that particles like protons might be more effective than x-rays at treating tumours. Antiproton cell experiment Cern X-rays, protons and other particles all damage DNA by disruptive radiation. But proton beams have an advantage over x-rays, explained Holzscheiter: the particles do less damage to healthy tissue surrounding a tumour. While an x-ray beam deposits energy along its entire path through the body, a beam of charged particles does damage only after electrical interactions have slowed it sufficiently to create a high chance of collision with atomic nuclei. This means that proton beams deposit most of their energy over a focused area, such as a collection of tumour cells, in the last millimetre of their journey.
The Essay on Cell Membrane Electron Transport Chain Biochemical Pathway
1. The cell membrane structure is vital to the life of the cell. The cell membrane is shaped as having a phosphate head at the very outer surface, and two fatty acid tails hanging from it. The membrane is double, so at the tip of the fatty acid tails, there are two more fatty acid tails attached to another phosphate head. This is what it looks like: The reason the cell membrane is shaped like this ...
Almost thirty proton beam therapy centres have been established worldwide, treating thousands of patients. At least 10 more are currently planned. Carbon ion beams, more effective at removing resistant tumours, are used in three treatment facilities: two inJapan, and one inGermany. A new clinic will open inHeidelberg,Germany, at the end of 2007. The Cern scientists tested antiprotons like protons but oppositely charged – with the same therapeutic idea in mind. An antiproton beam, they found, deposits even more energy at its end point, because the annihilation of antimatter with matter creates a shower of short-lived energetic particles.
The next steps, said Holzscheiter, would be to compare antiprotons to carbon ion beams, and to try irradiating cells at a greater surface depth. There are still some safety questions to address, he said. For example, some of the energetic particles created in an antimattermatter collision are not deposited locally but shoot straight through the body. Any commercial enterprise using antimatter therapy is a long way off, even if antiprotons come through all their tests. While a modern carbon ion facility, likeHeidelbergs, costs 150200 million, an antiproton clinic would cost 500 million, Holzscheiter estimated. But a far-sightedUS company, NanoLife Sciences, already owns the intellectual property rights for such an idea. Jesse Milares, vice-president for the companys financial operations, toldChemistry World that NanoLife is working with Brookhaven National Laboratory, US, to design a particle accelerator that uses antiprotons.
Richard Van Noorden References M Holzscheiteret al,Radiother. Oncol., 2006, DOI: 10.1016/j.radonc.2006.09.012.
