Dear AuntMinnie Member,
A new study issued this week by the influential Cochrane Collaboration indicates that clinicians are doing the right thing when they treat patients with a combination of chemotherapy and radiation therapy for early-stage Hodgkin's lymphoma.
The study addressed speculation that oncologists could spare Hodgkin's patients from radiation burden by eliminating radiation treatment. But the results suggest that doing so might be a bad idea -- patients who got both chemo and radiation were less likely to die or have local recurrence. Get the rest of the details by clicking here.
In other news, learn how researchers in Boston are using gold nanoparticles in conjunction with conventional megavoltage x-rays to create a radiation boost designed to shut down vasculature in tumors. Read all about it by clicking here.
Get these stories and more in our Radiation Oncology Digital Community, at radiation.auntminnie.com.
Poverty and radiation
Another new study debunks a commonly held myth: that poor people suffer a higher radiation dose because they have less access to imaging modalities that don't use ionizing radiation.
It's been demonstrated that members of lower socioeconomic classes who are sick are exposed to higher levels of medical radiation than other members of society. But the cause of this phenomenon wasn't clear -- was it because poor people had less access to modalities such as ultrasound and MRI? Or were there other factors at work?
The actual cause of higher radiation doses is that poor people tend to be sicker, and sicker people tend to undergo more imaging studies, the authors concluded. Read more by clicking here, or visit our Digital X-Ray Community at xray.auntminnie.com.
