The ultra-fast cancer treatments which could replace conventional radiotherapy

bbc.com

129 points·bentocorp··6 comments

This is such a great example of why pursing knowledge for knowledge sake in pure science leads to advancement in areas we might not expect…

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Proton_therapy

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Proton_therapy#FLASH_therapy

This actually makes sense and mimics the results I got doing experiments with flashed high-intensity UVC for sterilizing surfaces a few years back. You don't really need to leave UVC going for a couple of minutes. Two high-intensity pulses similar to what a camera flash would do for an exposure does the trick, assuming you put enough power per square millimeter down on the surface. Obviously I wouldn't try that on important living tissues, but microorganisms certainly don't survive what amounts to a photonic nuclear blast.

I sure hope they make some progress because current treatment seems pretty archaic. My wife recently went through chemo and rad.

I'm thankful that I was able to go to her treatments, because the first chemo. Shortly after it started, I pointed out that she was really flush and had started "breathing funny" (kind of repeatedly sighing). She hadn't noticed, but decided to pull the "oh shit string". A couple minutes later 8 nurses were in the room with a crash cart, working feverishly while one nurse kept taking her BP and calling out smaller and smaller numbers until it stopped registering. Meanwhile, I'm stuck in a chair in the corner, trying not to be in the way, and coming to terms that I might be going home alone. Which, thankfully, I did not.

Cancer is bullshit.

That sounds like a nightmare, I'm glad you didn't go home alone.

It worked very well for my father in-law‘s prostate cancer.

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