Comments on: Duncker’s Radiation Problem

By: onofsamphm1c

onofsamphm1c — Wed, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000

You take the patient to a cancer center that has a proton machine.

By: Mike DeWitt

Mike DeWitt — Wed, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000

Isn't the solution to this one to use multiple, focused rays that converge on the tumor but pass through different healthy tissues, delivering the needed radiation in sum, but not separately?

Of course, you didn't ask, so I'm just blabbering...

By: Dan tdaxp

Dan tdaxp — Wed, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000

Mike gets it right!

By: sonofsamphm1c

sonofsamphm1c — Wed, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000

To this very day, a throat cancer is likely, for instance, to result in severely damaged salivary glands. It's a little better than the stone ages, but radiation therapy destroys a lot of healthy tissue. That would be the case whether you're getting therapy in the Dakotas or at a place like MD Anderson.

Proton radiation, which requires a very expensive machine and facility, is touted as less harmful to surrounding tissues, but may not be as effective in killing some tumor tissue. To me it looks promising. MD Anderson just started using theirs.

By: fl

fl — Wed, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000

I've seen this problem before in my ed psych courses, and while I can partially recall the analogical situation offered (with the army being broken up, I believe), I couldn't recall the solution to the problem. Interesting how memory works.