Particle Accelerator Cancer Treatment

A particle accelerator is a machine that uses electric fields to thrust electrically-charged particles at high speeds through narrow beams to treat cancer. There has been a recent surge in health care to use such devices to treat cancer.

Features

• Particle accelerator machines blast protons directly into tumors at nearly the speed of light.

  Proton Centers is the name given to facilities where this type of cancer treatment is available.

Benefits

• The protons are more accurate than current X-ray machines, which leads to much less leftover radiation from being used to treat the cancer.

Potential

• As of 2010, there are five hospital-based Proton Centers in the United States compared to just one in 2000.

Debate

• While many experts argue that there is a strong need for more Proton Centers, others say that the development of Proton Centers is nothing more than a race among medical centers to increase profits.

Size

• Proton Centers have been dubbed the world's most expensive and complex medical device, as the accelerator itself weighs 222 tons. The building that contain particle accelerators are nearly the size of a football field with walls up to 18-feet-thick.