The college search for your youngest daughter has started. With an ultimate goal of going to medical school and becoming a surgeon, your daughter has decided that she wants to get her undergraduate degree from an affordable college or university that will prepare her for both the MCAT and her future programs. Your daughter was partially inspired for her long term goal by experiencing the non-invasive cancer treatments that you recently completed. And while you were able to fight your cancer battle without surgery, your daughter also knows other friends and family members who have had to have more invasive and complicated treatments, including surgeries.
Will the Next Generation Be the Group to Find a Cure for Cancer?
From breast cancer doctors to specialists who are working on advancements in treatment options for prostate cancer, it is important to understand that the war we have with cancer is a significant one. With more than 23,800 adults and 4,830 children diagnosed with cancerous tumors of the brain and spinal cord each year, it should come as no surprise that their is a continuing effort to make sure that cancer research continues. And while there are many other kinds of cancers that effect Americans, a look at this one kind of cancer can be very informative.
In the case fo less serious cancers, non-invasive cancer treatments like proton beam radiation options continue to grow in popularity. Proton therapy is an application that decreases the radiation dose to gastrointestinal structures by at least 59% when it is compared to the radiation that is included in X-rays. Non-invasive cancer treatment therapy options continue to offer a number of patients an effective option.
Using prostate cancer as an example, it is possible to see some of the advantages of continued research into proton therapy and other treatment options. For example, because of proton therapy’s targeted approach, studies have found that prostate cancer patients treated using this method have a significantly reduced risk of impotence. In fact, 94% of men report that they remain sexually active after treatment. Another advantage of proton treatments is the length of this application. For instance, a proton therapy treatment session generally takes 15 to 45 minutes, however the actual time spent delivering the protons to the tumor is generally only one or two minutes.
As Americans continue to find themselves in need of cancer treatments, it is encouraging that there are so many who are planning to go into the medical research and applications fields.
