New technique could aid cancer treatment

A new technique for attacking tumours could pave the way to life-saving improvements in cancer treatment, scientists say.

The high-tech system for viewing cancer inside the body allows doctors to target a growth more accurately, leaving healthy tissue alone.

Scientists believe it will enable radiation doses to be "moulded" perfectly around the tumour's shape.

Researchers at the Mount Vernon Hospital in Middlesex, funded by the Cancer Research Campaign, have combined two existing scanning techniques to obtain the "best views yet" of tumours and the tissues surrounding them.

CT scanning gives a good measure of where the growth is within the body, but not enough detail to judge its size and shape.

The alternative, MRI scanning, has the opposite problem, giving plenty of internal detail but not an accurate outline of the patient's body, making it hard to pinpoint the growth's exact location.

Now the scientists are using computers to overlay the two types of scan to get the best of both.

Using the image as their guide, doctors can use a type of treatment called brachytherapy, in which ultra-fine radioactive needles are inserted, as a precise way of directing radiation.

Dr Peter Hoskin, leading the study, said: "We have techniques that can concentrate radiation at the site of a tumour but, for them to work, we have to know the exact size, shape and location of each cancer.

"Our research should allow us to mould radiation dosages to fit a tumour's shape, improving the effectiveness of radiotherapy. Also, by avoiding damage to normal tissues, we could provide patients with a safer form of treatment."