In treating oncological diseases, they widely use radiotherapy. But radiation does not only kill cancer cells but also damages healthy ones. A contradiction occurs. It is necessary to concentrate a sufficiently strong flux of particles on a disease-affected organ, but other organs absorb the harmful radiation and shadow the affected one. It is necessary to make radiation energy still higher which increases the harm caused to a patient.

In treating oncological diseases, they widely use radiotherapy. But radiation does not only kill cancer cells but also damages healthy ones. A contradiction occurs. It is necessary to concentrate a sufficiently strong flux of particles on a disease-affected organ, but other organs absorb the harmful radiation and shadow the affected one. It is necessary to make radiation energy still higher which increases the harm caused to a patient.
Italian scientists managed to cure a man of an advanced stage of liver cancer. Naturally, the gigantic doses of radiation necessary for treatment could have killed the man faster than the disease. The doctors found an unexpected and effective method. They extracted the liver affected by metastasis from the body and exposed it to radiation of sufficient intensity. After being treated by neutrons, it was implanted back as if it was an ordinary liver transplantation. According to the scientists, this method may be used to treat cancer of other transplantable organs.
The experimental treatment was tested by the doctors of San-Matteo hospital in Pavia jointly with the physicists of the local department of the Institute of Nuclear Physics. The patient had already been operated for bowel cancer but the tumor had spread to the liver where 14 loci of the disease were detected. There was practically no hope to cope with the disease by conventional methods.
A year after the operation, the liver of the 48-year-old patient still functions normally. The research proved that there are no signs of tumor. Now the authors are going to test the method on six more patients. 
 

Source: obzor.info.