When the FDA called for excessive radiation doses to be scaled back this past February, regulators probably weren't thinking of video game processors as part of the equation. However, a new way of processing X-ray data that uses video game processors could lower the amount of radiation patients receive during cone beam CT scans used in state-of-the-art cancer treatments, report researchers at the University of California, San Diego.
Compared to a widely used scanning protocol, the new processing method resulted in 36 to 72 times less radiation exposure for patients, says lead author Xun Jia, a UCSD postdoctoral fellow. Using processors originally designed to power 3D computer graphics in video games, the team of researchers were able to create images clear enough for imagine-guided radiation therapy, which uses repeated scans during a course of radiation therapy to precisely target tumors and minimize radiation damage to surrounding tissue.
Though IGRT has improved outcomes, the large radiation dose from repeated scans raised concerns among physicians and patients. High CT doses are a source of worry in the medical community, seeing as each year, scans result in cancers that could cause 15,000 deaths.
The research could also apply to general diagnostic imaging, and could reduce the CT dose per scan by a factor of 10 or more, says co-author Steve Jiang, a UCSD associate professor of radiation oncology.
To learn more:
- read the American Institute of Physics press release
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