SPECIAL REPORT: Proton Accelerator Developed To Treat Cancer
Posted: 10:13 pm PDT May 9, 2011Updated: 12:41 am PDT May 10, 2011
LIVERMORE, Calif. — Bay Area scientists in Livermore have turned nuclear weapons technology into a remarkable cancer cure.The UC Davis Crocker Nuclear Laboratory houses a single massive machine that is being used to treat a rare form of cancer known as ocular melanoma64-year-old Rancho Cordoba resident Glenda Caldwell is one of the cancer patients receiving the specialized therapy.”I realize it’s not available to everyone,” said Caldwell. “I just feel so fortunate.”Inside heavy shielding, the high-energy particle accelerator shoots beams of protons that destroys living tissue. In this case, the energy is aimed at a tumor.KTVU saw the particle accelerator in action when 69-year-old patient Karl Johnson came to the lab for a treatment.You tell most people you have cancer of the eye, my God it sounds like a death knell, said Johnson.UCSF radiation oncologist Dr. Kavita Mishra explained to KTVU that the protons release energy at a selectable depth. There’s no collateral damage and virtually no health risk, which makes the proton-beam treatment much safer than all-penetrating x-rays.”[The treatment] kills the tumor. Destroys it 95% of the time or more,” said Dr. Mishra. “Just because of the characteristic that it treats what we need to treat and doesn’t treat what we don’t want it to treat.”The only problem with the treatment is that the $250 million machine is one of only 10 in the world.Bay Area scientists have just figured out how to turn this basketball court sized machine into something that can basically fit on a table top. The new device is 90 percent cheaper and vastly more efficient.Anthony Zografos, the head of a Livermore company called CPAC showed KTVU a prototype of the new machine.”This treatment could be available to everybody,” said Zografos.Drawing on Lawrence Livermore National Lab technology developed for nuclear-weapon testing, the machine utilizes ultra-high gradient dielectric tube and an ultra-fast, high-energy switch to create what could be a more powerful and even safer, cancer-curing machine for the masses.”We came up with the idea of a virtual traveling wave accelerator,” said Lawrence Livermore Lab physicist George Caporaso. “With a system like this, potentially you could put them in a small clinic in a small town.”The company hopes to sell its first machine next year.Experts said protons can treat any solid tumor. The treatment is covered by health insurance and KTVU has learned they’re beginning to be used to treat eye diseases such as macular degeneration with just a few brief sessions
