Physicists Receive Patent for Improved Cancer Therapy Device; New Design Would Deliver More Precise Radiation Doses at Lower Cost

UPTON, N.Y., Nov. 24 (AScribe Newswire) -- Four physicists at the U.S. Department of Energy's (DOE) Brookhaven National Laboratory have been awarded U.S. Patent No. 7,432,516 B2 for the design of a "medical synchrotron" capable of delivering precision doses of proton radiation to cancerous tumors with minimal damage to surrounding healthy tissue. The new device would be more precise and less costly than existing proton-therapy systems, potentially increasing the availability and benefits of this treatment for caner patients worldwide. The Brookhaven scientists are now seeking industrial partners to license and commercialize the technology.

"In the realm of cancer treatment, proton therapy is considered 'surgery without a knife' because proton beams can deliver cell-killing energy with extreme precision, unlike conventional x-ray radiation therapy," said Brookhaven physicist Stephen Peggs, one of the lead scientists on the project. Peggs, while working at DOE's Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory, witnessed the completion of the nation's first hospital-based proton-therapy synchrotron, installed at California's Loma Linda University Medical Center in 1990.

source: AScribe