ipl-logo

Outline And Clarifies The Uses For Developing Cancerous Cells

1910 Words8 Pages

Introduction
Nuclear Medicine is the technique that involves radioactive substances in treatments and diagnosis. Radioactivity in medicine has been in development for over 50 years; these procedures save thousands of lives and treat millions annually. There are many positive outcomes of radioactive materials used in treatments such as early detection of cancers, heart disease and others but, it’s still questioned today if these practices are unsafe due to the amount of exposure to hazardous radiation, the general population incline to blame radiation in medicine to be a significant contributor for developing cancerous cells in the human body. The following essay will outline and clarifies the uses, benefits and risks associated with the radioisotopes …show more content…

X-rays passes through the human body and create images of structures such as bones, symptoms of diseases and injuries and some organs.

Radioactive decay (radioactivity) is the course of when a nucleus loses energy from an unstable atom by emitting ionizing radiation. A radioactive material can be emitted of alpha, beta, gamma particles.

Gamma radiation or ‘gamma rays’ are electromagnetic radiation of an extremely high frequency and high energy photons but because of this, gamma rays are ionizing radiation to the human body which can be dangerous.

Positron Emission Tomography (PET) is a nuclear medical imagining device that collects inimitable information in which a radioactive material (radioisotope) is injected into the patient’s body and is then used to detect a variety of health conditions such as many types of cancers, heart diseases and more. After injection by a positron-emitting radioisotope, which is also known as a radioactive tracer, pairs of gamma rays can be detected through the emission indirectly.

Radionuclide is an isotope with an unstable nucleus, also known as a …show more content…

The methods are non-invasive and are usually completely painless. Depending on the severity of the health condition, recovery time from the x-ray can be fairly quick.

Figure 1.3: Typical Values of Effective Dose for different medical x-rays. Any ionizing radiation can lead to damaging cells. Exposing significant amounts of radiations from x-rays may increase your risk of developing cancerous cells but only in a decade’s period. The risk is very low and is outweighed by the benefits. Referring to Figure 1.x, The radiation dosage from most common used x-rays are below the absorbed range of the natural environment (1.5 – 2.0 mSv) while a CT scan can deliver high dose of radiation up to 10.6 mSv.
Conclusion
To review, nuclear medicine has provided treatment for health conditions that were previously limited to diagnosis. Medical imaging devices (x-rays, SPECT, PET) and the utilized radioactive substances (Technetium-99m and Phosphorus -32) all have common benefits of saving lives through detecting mild to fatal health conditions earlier to start treatment as early as possible while minimizing risk by the patient absorbing insignificant amount of

Show More
Related
1253 Words | 6 Pages

Radium causes mutations that can turn into cancer and if used in high doses, it can burn skin off. Nonetheless, it also helped kill cancer cells. In the 1940’s, several studies showed that radium was safer and more effective than surgery for treating invasive cervical cancer. The doctor who discovered radium and supervised Henrietta’s radium treatment, would later die from cancer; possibly due to his regular exposure to

Read More
933 Words | 4 Pages

1. Write a brief introduction about the diagnostic imaging modality. Nuclear medicine is a section of medical imaging that uses radioactive medication known as radiotracers or radiopharmaceutical (Understanding nuclear medicine, 2009). Radiotracers are given to the patient through injection, swallowing or inhalation, which makes the body radioactive for a short time. The radiation is detected by a special camera, and then the image is produced.

Read More
1075 Words | 5 Pages

Two hundred monitor units (MU) administered during each trial on a clinically calibrated linear accelerator. Ionization Dmax made with each material using an Exradin A12 Farmer chamber and read by a Keithley 35614 digital dosimeter with no temperature or pressure corrections made. The current in the dosimeter set to +300. The dose on the electrometer measure the output of each trial in Coulombs x

Read More
808 Words | 4 Pages

Various levels are available in electron mode. Therac-25 was enclosed in a room of radiation treatment in order to avoid unnecessary exposure of radiation on individuals who works near the machine. And through visual and audio monitors located in the treatment room the Machine operator has contact with the patient at that time. The

Read More
666 Words | 3 Pages

Nuclear expositions produce radiations and the radiations can harm the cells of our body which can lead to a severe sickness or even kill us humans. Radiation is the emission of energy as electromagnetic waves which cause ionization. Radiation sickness is caused by exposure to a high dose of radiation. When these particles come into contact with organic material, they will damage them, causing burns and cancer. Exposure to radiation makes our bodies produce fewer blood clotting agents, called blood platelets, increasing our risk of internal bleeding.

Read More
908 Words | 4 Pages

Ionized radiation (nuclear radiation) causes the seeds of plants to weaken which can lead to mutations. For example, when Chernobyl, located in Pripyat, Ukraine, had its meltdown, “a huge cloud of radiation was formed which resulted in a massive amount of destroyed plant life; particularly pine trees in that area” (Reggiel). If radioactive particles were to get into water systems, it will do more long term damage than imaginable. “Those particles can stay in water for 800-1,000 years” (Marples). When effecting humans and other living species, radiation can cause cancer, physical defects and can kill lymph nodes and nerve cells in any living object.

Read More
1386 Words | 6 Pages

Henrietta’s tumor was treated with radium, which was a white radioactive metal that glows blue. It destroys any cells that it comes into contact with and can burn the skin off a person’s body at high doses. Dr. Lawrence Wharton Jr. dilated Henrietta’s cervix and prepared to treat her tumor, but first shaved off a piece of tissue from her tumor and a piece from her healthy cervical tissue. After the procedure was finished, a resident took the samples to Gey’s

Read More
918 Words | 4 Pages

Participation in the MD Anderson 1st Year Medical Student Program would provide a research based experience that would catalyze my goals for the future. Investigations with results that could prove practical towards my patients at the bedside are of great interest to me. This has sparked my attention towards translational medicine as a promising area of investigation. I believe the field of radiomics in particular has tremendous potential for clinical applications in direct patient care, especially in the field of oncology.

Read More
819 Words | 4 Pages

The main disadvantage of using X-Ray frequently is the radiation used in X-Ray sometimes damage the body cells, DNA structure which leads to cancer. Figure 3 shows the X-Ray images of the chest, where lung is affected by TB. In Figure 3, two arrows are

Read More
857 Words | 4 Pages

Using radioisotopes to detect various abnormalities in the body is dangerous as too much exposure inside the body could lead to numerous side effects and long lasting issues. That is why nuclear medicine uses specific radioisotopes to scope the body and detect complications inside the body; all of the radioisotopes used have very short periods of radioactivity. 99mTc has a half life of 6 hours, meaning that after it emits the gamma rays or internal conversion electrons (a radioactive decaying process where a stimulated nucleus interacts electromagnetically with one of the orbital electrons), the isotope will return to their ground state and won’t emit radiation anymore. The body cannot handle too much radiation, so radioisotopes that return to their ground state after a short time are good to use without creating

Read More
463 Words | 2 Pages

The use of isotopes has tremendously impacted the medical and oncology field and can be used for the detection and treatment of cancer. Isotopes are versions of an element that have an equal number of protons, but an unequal number of neutrons; thus making the atoms radioactive and able to emit alpha, beta, and gamma rays. In the diagnosis of types of cancer, the injection of isotopes can radiate these rays, which can be detected by special equipment to track their location and how they move. Isotopes are not only good for detecting diseased cells, but destroying them as well. The energy that is given off of the isotopes, when delivered to cancer cells, can avoid harming healthy tissues and just eliminate the diseased cells.

Read More
1613 Words | 7 Pages

Dental radiographs are important tools in the diagnosis of oral diseases. It helps the dentist to employ appropriate treatment regimen for patient’s dental conditions, and plays a continual important role in dental practice. Radiation dosage from such dental radiographs are low and are thought to present minimal risk (Enabulele & Igbinedion, 2013) The radiation protection is the science and art of protecting people and environment from the harmful effects of ionizing radiation.

Read More
844 Words | 4 Pages

There are high levels of ionizing radiation. High beams from radiation cause damage to cancer cells, and finally the risks of health effects. These three reasons are mainly a big impact on radiation and cancers being

Read More
784 Words | 4 Pages

In addition to the cost, these isotopes take a long of time to produce, therefore it is very unlikely for scientists to often use these isotopes to treat many patients or diseases because it is very limited. (The Cost of Bringing a Radiopharmaceutical to the Patient’s

Read More
759 Words | 4 Pages

There are four technologies available, which are the millimetre wave, backscatter X-Ray, transmission X-Ray and passive millimetre wave. The passive millimetre wave technology is the safest because it does not emit radiation which is detrimental

Read More

More about Outline And Clarifies The Uses For Developing Cancerous Cells

Related Topics

Open Document