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Patients who have undergone pelvic radiotherapy may live with low-grade chronic inflammation of the lower intestine 20 years after the treatment. This has been shown in a study. Radiotherapy is often necessary to cure or slow down a cancer. Even though today's radiotherapies feature a high level of precision, healthy tissue in and around the radiation field is still affected. The mucous membrane of the large intestine is normally protected against contact with bacteria in feces by a thin barrier of mucus. In the current study, researchers have shown that radiotherapy to the pelvic area affects this thin layer of...

Treatment times for radiotherapy could be reduced for some early breast cancer patients, according to a trial. Results show giving some breast cancer patients a targeted additional dose of radiotherapy at the same time as treatment to the whole breast (known as simultaneous integrated boost or SIB) cuts the time taken to complete treatment by at least one week. The trial found that SIB radiotherapy given at the right dose works just as well as existing radiotherapy techniques in reducing the risk of the cancer returning in the treated breast. The chance of the cancer returning to the treated breast...

Researchers in China have discovered that inhibiting a protein called the GABAA receptor can protect intestinal stem cells from the toxic effects of chemotherapy and radiotherapy. The study suggests that the FDA-approved anti-sedative flumazenil, which targets GABAA receptors, could alleviate some of the common gastrointestinal side effects, such as diarrhea and vomiting, induced by many cancer treatments. Because they have to continually proliferate and replace the cells lining the wall of the gut, intestinal stem cells are highly sensitive to chemotherapy and radiotherapy. These treatments damage the DNA of intestinal stem cells and cause them to die, leading to intestinal...

Photo released by Mexican authorities shows the radiotherapy device, containing radioactive material, being loaded for transport before it was stolen.A truck carrying "extremely dangerous" radioactive material was found Wednesday close to the place where it was stolen in Mexico, authorities said. The cargo was found about half a mile from the container. The vehicle was transporting radiotherapy equipment containing the radioactive isotope cobalt-60 from a hospital to a waste storage center, the International Atomic Energy Agency said. "At the time the truck was stolen, the source was properly shielded," the IAEA said in a statement. "However, the source could be...

Mini X-ray tubes could revolutionize radiotherapy — and airport baggage scanners. Carbon nanotubes can be used to generate X-rays.Pasieka / Science Photo Library It's taken more than a century, but X-rays are finally getting a shake-up. A new way of generating them uses carbon nanotubes and could allow real-time three-dimensional scanning. "If you look at current imaging technology, technically very little has changed since Wilhelm Röntgen discovered X-rays more than 100 years ago," says materials scientist Otto Zhou at the University of North Carolina (UNC) in Chapel Hill. Zhou and his colleagues first came up with their novel alternative to...