[UNEDITED] mouth cancer radiation therapy / clinical linear accelerator

the video of a mouth cancer patient being irradiated - with the original sounds. i only turned up the sharpness a bit so you could see the highly energetic photons striking the camera CCD a bit better. notice how the cam's microphone is disturbed by the rays, too.

for more details not only about this very radiation treatment and the isodose chart, but also about the story in general, see my flickr photostream: http://www.flickr.com/photos/bionerd/sets/72157622824173136/

Category:

Science & Technology

Tags:

• teeth
• cyst
• tounge
• tumor
• ulcer
• oral
• cancer
• smoking
• cigarettes
• tobacco
• kills
• death
• dying
• carcinoma
• karzinom
• krebs
• x-ray
• radiation
• radioactive
• medical
• imaging
• patient
• health
• issue
• damage
• dental
• zahne
• mundkrebs
• rauchen
• zigaretten
• tomography
• rendering
• therapy
• bestrahlung
• mask
• maske
• 6000
• rads
• gray
• isodose
• iso
• dose
• plan
• imrt
• map
• color
• treatment
• stahlung
• physics
• causes
• mouth
• chemotherapy
• dead
• machine

[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.

[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!

[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 ?