Medical Project

Recommendations (8)


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At a recent meeting, members discussed the
increasing incidence of strong drug resistance in tumor cells.
Ranking first globally among major causes of fatality,
cancer also causes the immunity of patients to become resistant
to therapeutic drugs. Restated, as cancer cells develop a
tolerance towards chemotherapy, multi-drug resistance forms in
tumor cells. While multi-drug resistance to
chemotherapy poses a major obstacle in treating cancer patients,
the lack of alternative methods to aggravate medicine dosage or
radiotherapy or excise the part organ makes it impossible to
resolve this dilemma. (NOTE : Add 2 sentences that describe
characteristics of the problem or statistics that reflect its severity)
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While conventional treatment
terminates multi-drug resistance of tumor cells by
aggravating the medicine dosage, doing so can seriously
injure normal cells in the human body following
radiotherapy and excising of organs.
The inability to enhance the effectiveness of conventional
therapeutic treatment methods makes it impossible to lower
drug resistance in tumor cells, creating an adverse impact
towards the metastasis of these cells.
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Therefore, we recommend examining the feasibility
of using alternative chemotherapy medicine or non-therapeutic
chemistry methods after the cancer cell becomes drug resistant to
chemotherapy medicine of a regular dosage. Cancer patients
receiving therapeutic treatment of only a single medicine can
avoid aggravating dosages used in conventional methods to cope
with the drug resistance of cancer cells, thus preventing injury to
normal cells in the human body. To do so, the
resistance of cancer cells towards an anticancer drug attempting
to terminating tumor cells in vitro can be identified. The resistant
cancer cells of the anticancer drug can then be isolated. Once
isolated, drug resistant cancer cells can then be terminated using
alternative chemotherapy medicine. Next, non-medication
methods such a high temperature, high pressure or radioactive
rays can be used to either terminate cancer cells or block the
transformation leading to cancer cell apotosis.
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As anticipated, these alternative approaches to
chemotherapy can alleviate patients from receiving high
dosage levels of chemotherapy medicine.
Results of this study can contribute to efforts to provide a
viable alternative for cancer patients unable to fully recover
following chemotherapy, especially given the resistance of
cancer cells towards such medication. With respect to
clinical and therapeutic outcomes, the alternative
approaches presented herein can terminate cancer cells
without the high dosage of chemotherapy medicine. (NOTE :
Add 2-4 sentences that describe more thoroughly how the
proposed method contributes to a particular field or sector)
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In our working group meeting last week, we
discussed our hospitals difficulty in measuring the equivalent dose of
high energy neutrons for radiation protection dosimetry and
microdosimetry. Developed by Professor Rossi for
microdosimetric investigation of radiation in 1960, a dosimetric method
based on a low pressure tissue equivalent proportional counter has
been extensively adopted in radiation dosimetry. According to the
International Commission on Radiation Units and Measurements,
microdosimetric parameters consist of energy deposited, specific
energy and energy imparted. This counter is a spherical chamber with
a tissue equivalent wall and filled with tissue equivalent gas. As the
principal instrument of microdosimetry based on the Bragg-Gray cavity
principle, this gas-filled counter determines the dose and dose
equivalent to small volumes of human tissue when high energy
radiation is behind the shielding of high energy accelerator and
spacecraft.
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A linear accelerator can accelerate electrons to generate high
energy electrons or x-ray with different energy regions, thus producing a
photonuclear reaction when the energy exceeds 10 MeV. This reaction
subsequently emits neutrons. When human tissue is irradiated by the
bremmsstrahlung photon, as created in a linear accelerator, the patient
receives a significant dose of photo-produced neutrons. However, the tissue
equivalent proportional counter for a linear accelerator with one or more
products and neutrons of microdosimetry has not been investigated
experimentally. Additionally, the neutron response of a
tissue equivalent proportional counter depends on the atomic composition of
gas in a neutron energy region below 300 keV. The neutron response depends
on the atomic composition of the counter for neutrons above 300 keV. While
the regular spherical shape of the counter was selected so that its response
would be more or less independent of the direction from which the radiation
emits, the spherical shape is a challenging task for design purposes.
Neutron response depends on construction of the tissue equivalent
proportional counter and atomic composition of materials used in a counter
design. Therefore, given various radiation types, measurement methods and
angles for the linear accelerator, enhancing the counter design and materials is
problematic. Moreover, measuring the equivalent dose of high energy neutrons
is problematic for radiation protection dosimetry and microdosimetry owing to
the lack of standard devices for investigating the mixed radiation field.
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Therefore, we recommend designing a spherical or right
cylindrical tissue equivalent proportional counter to measure all particles
composed of thermal neutrons, fast neutrons, high energy charge
particles and photons for a high energy linear accelerator. Additionally,
the energy deposited in volumes resembling critical tissue components
such as cells or cell nuclei can be determined using such a
microdosimeter. To do so, given that microdosimetry
involves studying single-event deposition at microscopic sites of a tissue,
the detector geometry can be selected to design a tissue equivalent
proportional counter. The spherical cavity generally tends to be cylinder
based owing to that the sphere is not only volume with isotropic response,
but also has the lowest relative variance of chord lengths. The wall of
such a counter can then be made of a tissue equivalent to A-150 plastic,
which is a mixture of calcium fluoride, polyethylene, nylon and carbon.
Next, the gas filling can be selected to influence the gas gain and
counting characteristics. In general, the tissue equivalent gases based on
methane and propane are both available commercially.
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As anticipated, analysis results can indicate the
feasibility of fabricating anequivalent proportional counter for
the spherical tissue that conforms to the chord length
distribution and mean chord length standard described by
Professor Kellerer when measuring the mixed radiation field
for a high energy linear accelerator, especially in neutron
dose. If desired, the linear energy deposited in small tissue
can be determined using such a microdosimeter.
A neutron dose equivalent meter based on a tissue
equivalent proportional counter is highly promising for a
variety of radiation fields of a high energy linear accelerator.
Such a counter can be used as a reference meter in various
neutron fields for routine microdosimeters. Moreover, using
this counter with another simple dosimeter may reduce
systematic measurement errors of dose equivalent in a
mixed radiation field.
Further details can be found at
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