& çâÌæÚUæð´ ·¤è ¥ôÚU Îð¹Ùæ ÁæÚUè ÚU¹ð´ ¥ÍæüÌ ¥ÂÙð ÜÿØ ÂÚU ŠØæÙ ÚU¹ð´Ð ãæÚU Ù ×æÙð´, €UØô´ç·¤ ·¤æ× ·¤ÚUÙð âð ¥æÂ·¤ô ©gðàØ ·¤è Âýæç# ãôÌè ãñ ¥õÚU ÁèßÙ ·¤æ ¹æÜèÂÙ ÎêÚU ãôÌæ ãñÐ ÖÜð ãè ÁèßÙ ×ð´ ç·¤ÌÙè Öè ·¤çÆÙæ§ü €UØô´ Ù ¥æ°, çÁ™ææâæ ¥õÚU ©ˆâæã ÕÙæ° ÚU¹ð´Ð ŠØæÙ ÚU¹ð´, ÜÿØ ã×ðàææ ¥æÂ·Ô¤ Âæâ ãôÌð ãñ´ çÁ‹ãð´ ÂæÙð ·Ô¤ çÜ° ÂýØæâ ¥æÂ ·¤Öè Öè àæéM¤ ·¤ÚU â·¤Ìð ãñ´Ð

Heavy Ion Radiotherapy

Promising tool to combat cancer

Star Health Desk
With the increasing rate of cancer in the world, scientists have been increasing their efforts to develop promising solutions or strengthen the existing weapons to combat cancer. Radiotherapy using heavy ion is such a promising tool that can be used as effective therapy in many types of cancer, even when conventional radiotherapy fails.
Heavy ions are a form of radiation like X-ray, gumma ray, proton beam — but heavier and has much stronger and superior action. Currently, carbon ion beams are being used for heavy ion cancer radiotherapy.
Heavy ions are accelerated to approximately 70% of the speed of light and applied to patients in order to treat deep-seated cancer within the body where conventional radiation cannot reach. It is useful in head and neck tumours, skull base tumours, bone and soft tissue tumours, lung cancer, liver cancer, prostate cancer etc.
The most suitable indication of heavy ion radiotherapy is cancer cases where surgery is difficult or very risky due to age and other complications. It allows the tumours to be treated without surgery and without causing pain. It is also particularly useful for treating cancers that do not respond well with conventional radiotherapy, such as osteosarcoma, a cancer of bone.
When X-rays and gamma rays are used,
normal tissue surrounding the tumour is also destroyed, which may cause side effects.
Another radiotherapy using proton beam is more precise to target tumor cells than X-ray, but less strong in action
than heavy ion. Heavy ions are twelve times heavier than protons and possess a superior ability to travel in a straight line. For these reasons, it strikes tumour tissue with greater accuracy and destructive force without destroying surrounding normal tissues. Thus, it has the ability to deliver more focused, targeted therapy and produce a very little side effect.
The treatment time for heavy ion radiotherapy is relatively shorter, 3 weeks on an average as compared to that of conventional radiotherapy that requires 6-7 weeks.
Heavy ion is being emerging as the promising solution in cancer radiotherapy treatment. However, it is not widely available worldwide. Japan is the pioneer in heavy ion radiotherapy and is home to three of the world's six medical centres that have gigantic facilities. Scientists and cancer specialists in Japan have recently started world's first clinical trial to treat localised breast cancer with heavy ion radiotherapy only. It could be a ground breaking solution for millions of women who do not want their breast removed by surgery or do not want to undergo conventional radiotherapy with a number of side effects.