Cancer cells can be eliminated in as fast as 30 minutes! How amazing is this anti-cancer technology?

Expert in this article: Ning Bikang, Researcher, International Institute of Neutron Science

Cancer is a word that makes everyone turn pale. When we talk about it, we often associate it with pain and death.

Some cancers are already in the late stages when they are discovered, and even with treatments such as surgery, radiotherapy, chemotherapy, and immunotherapy, it is still difficult to solve problems such as recurrence and metastasis.

The physical and mental pain brought by cancer can be described as a life-and-death torture, and patients and their families also have to bear a huge financial burden.

In recent years, with the development of science and technology, cancer treatment has also made great progress. For example, neutron therapy (also known as boron neutron capture therapy, BNCT) is one of the most advanced cancer treatment methods. It can accurately attack cancer cells, has relatively few side effects, and greatly reduces the cost of treatment...

What exactly is this technology? Today, we will unveil the mystery of neutron therapy.

What is Neutron Therapy?

Neutron therapy is the latest tumor treatment method in recent years. It uses neutrons to undergo a specific capture reaction with the boron element enriched in tumor cells, which will produce short-range secondary particles (alpha particles and lithium ions) in the cells. The range of these secondary particles is only in the micron order, which is exactly the same as the diameter of tumor cells. They can be directed to explode in tumor cells, while the surrounding normal cells are almost undamaged.

Source: Drawn by the author

Neutron therapy has ignited new hope for cancer treatment. The Ministry of Science and Technology has reported that neutron therapy is the "fifth therapy" for tumors after surgery, traditional radiotherapy, anticancer drugs, and immunotherapy.

How to eliminate cancer cells step by step?

What tumors can be treated?

How does neutron therapy eliminate tumors step by step? Let's take a look at it with the latest neutron therapy system.

At the neutron therapy center, after the patient undergoes the necessary examinations, the doctor will tailor a safe and effective treatment plan for the patient based on the specific condition of each patient using the "brain" of neutron therapy - the neutron therapy planning system.

The patient then receives an injection of boron medicine as prescribed, followed by irradiation therapy with epithermal neutrons produced by a neutron therapy device to specifically kill cancer cells.

The entire treatment time is about 30-50 minutes, during which the patient can listen to music or chat. After the treatment, a follow-up visit will be conducted based on the patient's recovery status.

Neutron therapy is a powerful tool for cancer treatment. It is particularly suitable for the treatment of infiltrative, metastatic, multiple, recurrent tumors that are inoperable, and poorly adapted to radiotherapy and chemotherapy, such as recurrent head and neck cancer, malignant brain tumors, melanoma, osteosarcoma, breast cancer, liver cancer, etc.

At the same time, neutron therapy has advantages such as cell-level precision and tumor cell selectivity. With the development of technology, neutron therapy can be used to treat tumors that have spread and metastasized throughout the body in the future.

More effective than targeted and immunotherapy?

What are the advantages?

Compared with other anti-cancer therapies such as targeted and immunotherapy, neutron therapy has the characteristics of cellular-level precision, short treatment cycle, first-class efficacy for recurrent and metastatic tumors, and low cost.

Cell-level precision

In many tumor tissues, healthy cells and tumor cells are often mixed together (such as brain tumors), and neutron therapy can accurately find tumor cells and use the action of neutrons and boron drugs to kill tumor cells at a specific location, while healthy cells are almost undamaged.

Usually only one irradiation is needed to kill cancer cells in as fast as 30 minutes

Currently, for conventional photoelectron radiotherapy and proton therapy in hospitals, patients need to receive an average of 20 irradiations, and some even need more than 30 times.

Thanks to cellular-level precision, neutron therapy only requires one irradiation for most patients, while some patients require two irradiations, with each irradiation lasting 30 to 50 minutes. The entire treatment process is painless, with few side effects, and can greatly improve the patient's quality of life.

First-class efficacy for recurrent and metastatic tumors

Tumors that have recurred and metastasized multiple times are difficult to cure. An important reason for this is that the tumors have developed resistance or drug resistance to radiotherapy, chemotherapy, targeted drugs, immunotherapy, etc.

Neutron therapy can rapidly deposit a large amount of energy in tumor cells and has a very high relative biological effect, thereby completely destroying the genetic material of tumor cells and killing recurrent and metastatic tumor cells.

Treatment costs are greatly reduced?

When will it be put into use in China?

In 2020, there were nearly 3 million deaths from cancer in my country, and neutron therapy technology is currently monopolized by foreign countries.

We are also pleased to see that the Neutron Medicine Center project jointly built by the Fenglin Nuclear Team and Qilu Hospital of Shandong University has been launched, and the clinical device "Neutron Knife" has started assembly; the scientific research experimental device developed by the Dongguan Branch of the Institute of High Energy Physics of the Chinese Academy of Sciences has been born.

my country's neutron therapy technology is expected to enter clinical practice within two years, breaking the international monopoly of high-end medical equipment and significantly reducing treatment costs to 100,000 to 200,000 yuan.

We look forward to more breakthroughs in neutron therapy in our country and believe that more and more patients will benefit from this anti-cancer technology.

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