Mar 14, 2018
Hospitals use protons to fight cancer
Posted by Genevieve Klien in category: biotech/medical
The difference between traditional radiation and proton therapy is in how the radiation is delivered.
Traditional therapy irradiates tumors with X-ray waves, and all tissue along the beams’ path gets a similar dose of radiation.
Proton therapy instead uses beams of protons, charged subatomic particles that can be controlled with magnets. A small amount of radiation is deposited on the way into the body, most of it goes directly into the tumor, and none passes through the other side.