This week saw the official inauguration of the world’s first research prototype for whole-body MRI-guided proton therapy. The launch ceremony, at OncoRay – the National Center for Radiation Research in Oncology in Dresden, marked the start of scientific operation using the prototype, which is designed to enable real-time MRI tracking of moving tumours during proton therapy.

Proton therapy provides a means to treat tumours with extreme precision. The finite range of a proton beam enables extremely conformal dose targeting with reduced dose to nearby healthy tissue. This high conformality, however, makes proton treatments particularly sensitive to anatomical changes in the beam path, which can impair the targeting precision when treating a moving target. Real-time imaging during treatment could help solve this drawback by synchronizing dose delivery with the tumour position.

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Biomedical science assumes that people want to live as long as possible. They don’t.

In a new Review Article, Dr. Zoltan Arany discusses the epidemiology and clinical presentation of peripartum cardiomyopathy, as well as the mechanistic basis for potential therapeutics.

Every time a cancer cell divides, it sustains damage to its own DNA molecules. Researchers, including Gaorav Gupta, MD, Ph.D., associate professor in the Department of Radiation Oncology at the UNC School of Medicine, have long wondered how cancers are able to evade detection by the body’s own defenses, despite the immune system being on constant watch for cells displaying DNA damage.