Whats the current state of radiation oncology?
There have been staggering advances in molecular-based technologies during the last five years that have affected the field in ways we only dreamed of before. Using molecular-based imaging, we’ll be able to see tumors like never before — not only what’s in the organ we’re interested in, but also the cells related to the tumor outside the organ. Also, we’ll be able to see the function of the tumor and direct therapies specifically toward it. When radiation is given one way, for example, tumors respond far differently than if it’s given another way. What do you mean by that? What are the different ways tumors respond? If a tumor depends, say, on a specific protein to repair its DNA — and certain tumors use this repair pathway to greater advantage than others do — then we might be able to deliver the radiation in such a way to those tumors that avoids activating this DNA repair system. We are now studying some of these alternative ways and have seen some very interesting results. Likew
