Cancer research highlights

July 24, 2008 -- HALF OF ALL AMERICANS will be diagnosed at some point in their lives with cancer, the number two killer in the United States. One of the professions at the frontlines in the battle against cancer are medical physicists -- scientists who use the power and innovation of physics to study and solve the most pressing medical problems.

Medical physicists help to develop new imaging technologies, such as dedicated breast CT scans, and improve existing ones. They devise new therapeutic techniques, including new radiotherapy applicators for cervical cancer treatment and procedures to focus radiation using nanoparticles, quantum dots, and other discoveries from the cutting edge of science, and they create methods to assess the safety and effectiveness of treatments that are already in use.

These and other topics will be the focus later this month of the 50th annual meeting of the American Association of Physicists in Medicine (AAPM), the largest medical physics association in the world. The meeting takes place from July 27 to July 31, in Houston, Texas.

Journalists are invited to cover the AAPM meeting in person or remotely. Additional news releases detailing other meeting highlights are hosted on the AAPM website (see link below).

-----SECTION ONE: CANCER RESEARCH HIGHLIGHTS IN BRIEF-----

1) BREAST CT SCANNERS PROMISE PAINLESS ALTERNATIVE TO MAMMOGRAPHY
"...The discomfort of a mammogram can drive some women to avoid the valuable screening, occasionally with dire consequences. Now a new procedure, dedicated breast computed tomography (CT), promises to take the pain out of breast cancer detection..." MORE DETAILS BELOW

2) MEASURING CANCER THERAPY SUCCESS WITH OXYGEN
"...Scientists at The Ohio State University (OSU) have identified a way to predict very early in the treatment process the outcome of radiation and chemotherapy for cervical cancer patients -- based on oxygen levels within the tumor..." MORE DETAILS BELOW

3) HYBRID IMAGER COULD IMPROVE BREAST EXAMS
"...An integrated, multi-modality molecular imaging system may improve detection, diagnosis and treatment monitoring of breast cancer, while also relieving some of the discomfort often associated with breast exams. The system allows subjects to lie prone while both a dedicated SPECT and CT scan are taken of the breast..." MORE DETAILS BELOW

4) SPARING LEUKEMIA PATIENTS FROM UNNECESSARY TREATMENT
"...Nearly a third of leukemia patients do not respond to chemotherapy, but this is not usually discovered until they have already endured a week-long chemotherapy treatment and waited a month to see whether it has worked. A new study shows that PET scans could tell how well a patient is responding after just one day of chemotherapy..." MORE DETAILS BELOW

5) OPTIMIZING THE TREATMENT OF SHALLOW TUMORS
"... A promising new way to treat superficial tumors, such as tumors of the scalp or of the chest wall after a mastectomy, is a procedure called modulated electron therapy (MERT). [Researchers] at the Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis have developed a number of tools that make MERT more effective and customizable to individual patients..." MORE DETAILS BELOW