[UNEDITED] mouth cancer radiation therapy / clinical linear accelerator

[TypesEvilAspieEyes]

Redirects to the flicker homepage . Link to the isodose chart

[TypesEvilAspieEyes]

@alin0steglinski0 I wanna be at the controls too. Looks soo fun

[HaroldRetrotyp]

arbeitest du im krankenhaus bionerd?

[00fardeen]

is that mount vernon ?

[tall32guy]

Poor guy. I presume his mouth gets really hot and sore probably even during the procedure. I hope he becomes cancer free. Give him a hug for me. :)

[bionerd23]

@tall32guy

nah, he doesnt feel anything during the procedure, trust me!

it's just a slow forming radiation burn that he receives - when you're in the sun, you dont notice the sunburn until evening, either. it takes a few days of treatment until the radiation burn starts to appear; but then it also appears internally, e.g. in the throat. that's because x-radiation has a much shorter wavelength and is thus much more penetrating than UV radiation...

[bionerd23]

@tall32guy

(cont) ...but apart from that, they're both just photons, and both are electromagnetic AND ionizing radiation - so, to the skin, a sunburn is exactly the same as an x-ray burn or a gamma ray burn... just that it penetrates deeper (so when the sun strikes you badly on one arm, it only increases the risk for SKIN cancer from UV light - gamma rays pass until bone, so it also mutates bone cells, with all the consequences).

[bionerd23]

@bionerd23

*of course it doesnt directly mutate, but can cause DNA DSBs or free radicals to form, which in return attack the DNA and cause errors, which can be repaired in most cases, but in some cases the cell may mutate and not undergo apoptosis even though the DNA is faulty, and that's what we call cancer then. but, uhm, explaining all this would make me really spam this video with comments, so yeah, i'll stop here. ;)

[gccn]

Is he asleep during treatment?

[bionerd23]

nope, fully awake an conscious.

however, it can be necessary for some patients to be sedated during treatment.

[turdetano]

sinister lullaby¡¡¡

Impressive.

[Clanside]

sorry, ich bin nicht so gut in englisch^^

Was macht diese Maschine genau?

[bionerd23]

das ist ein linearbeschleuniger zur bestrahlung von tumoren / krebs. elektronen werden auf 4 MeV beschleunigt und dann auf ein target geschossen; die enstehenden hochenergetischen photonen treffen den patienten an genau definierten stellen (denn ein "treffer" z.b. ins gesamte stammhirn wuerde wohl den tod bedeuten). dort sterben sowohl gesunde zellen, aber insbesondere auch schnellteilende tumorzellen ab, was den krebs heilen soll. die heilungsschancen bei diesem fall liegen bei ca. 50%.

[Clanside]

Wow :D

Vielen dank (:

[doktorfuture]

How accurate are these things? Do they zap his brain as well? Is there much collateral tissue damage?

[bionerd23]

nah, if they'd randomly hit his brain, he'd have severe neurological issues just after one treatment. he receives 2 Gy / 200 rad a DAY.

[bionerd23]

however, as his mouth cancer had already spread to the lymph nodes, the whole mouth and neck area is irradiated; this will indeed cause defects / tissue damage in healthy tissue, too.

see the video's description for a link to my flickr photostream, where you will find an isodose chart. this chart shows exactly how much radiation every part of his head will receive.

[TheTarrMan]

that's really cool how they do that?

[bionerd23]

how they do it?

that'd be a couple pages to type that out, so please look at the wikipedia article RADIATION TREATMENT. :)

[clony101]

so thouse ray are destroying the ccd

[bionerd23]

nope, not really. from personal experience, i think photons only cause light flashes, no permanent damage - no matter how high in energy they are. same goes for electrons as it seems.

however, protons, neutrons, and alpha radiation is deadly to a CCD, it causes dead pixels.

[chao129]

I am thinking of buying one of those things...

[AScannerClearly]

A lot easier to see the X-rays hitting the CCD in this one, and hearing the noises of the transformer and motor turning that massive thing is interesting... makes me want to be laying in that position even less!

[alin0steglinski0]

agree with all of your comments though i would love to be in the control room at the controls of such a beast for a day....

[tall32guy]

@alin0steglinski0 I sure wouldn't. Knowing that it's a high-voltage thing with a lot of radiation, and that it's possibly going to cause the patient in it to receive unpleasant side effects, would make it tough for me to do, even once.

[alin0steglinski0]

@tall32guy i still wanna be at the contorls :D

[tall32guy]

@AScannerClearly yep! Same for me. Not just laying in that position, but not having cancer at all! O_O