{"id":5675,"date":"2011-01-01T11:28:03","date_gmt":"2011-01-01T16:28:03","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/ssgreenberg.name\/PoliticsBlog\/?p=5675"},"modified":"2011-01-01T11:31:58","modified_gmt":"2011-01-01T16:31:58","slug":"a-pinpoint-beam-strays-invisibly-harming-instead-of-healing","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ssgreenberg.name\/PoliticsBlog\/2011\/01\/01\/a-pinpoint-beam-strays-invisibly-harming-instead-of-healing\/","title":{"rendered":"A Pinpoint Beam Strays Invisibly, Harming Instead of Healing"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The New York Times has the article <a href=\"http:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2010\/12\/29\/health\/29radiation.html\"><strong>A Pinpoint Beam Strays Invisibly, Harming Instead of Healing<\/strong><\/a>.<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>The treatment Ms. Faber received, stereotactic radiosurgery, or SRS, is one of the fastest-growing radiation therapies, a technological innovation designed to target tiny tumors and other anomalies affecting the brain or spinal cord, while minimizing damage to surrounding tissue.<\/p>\n<p>Because the radiation is so concentrated and intense, accuracy is especially important. Yet, according to records and interviews, the SRS unit at Evanston lacked certain safety features, including those that might have prevented radiation from leaking outside the cone.<br \/>\n.<br \/>\n.<br \/>\n.<br \/>\nDespite their complexity, the multipurpose devices are less regulated than their more simply designed competitor, the Gamma Knife, a device engineered specifically for stereotactic radiosurgery.<br \/>\n.<br \/>\n.<br \/>\n.<br \/>\nFor years, the Gamma Knife provided the necessary power and accuracy to accomplish its goal.<\/p>\n<p>But many institutions could not afford it; the device costs upwards of $3 million and requires its own room, and treatments take longer. There is also the added difficulty of handling and replacing radioactive material.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt doesn\u2019t pay to have a Gamma Knife unless you have a large number of patients,\u201d said Dr. Amols.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>When I needed brain surgery for a meningioma, I am sure glad I was living close to Portland, Oregon where I could receive Gamma Knife Surgery from a doctor who had studied with the inventor of the machine.\u00a0 It is too bad that the hospital could not figure out how to transfer the MRI results to a neurologist in Massachusetts after I moved back here.\u00a0 So what if the neurologist here has no way of comparing my current condition to what it was just before and just after the surgery. I guess it is not important.\u00a0 After all it only involves my life.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The New York Times has the article A Pinpoint Beam Strays Invisibly, Harming Instead of Healing. The treatment Ms. Faber received, stereotactic radiosurgery, or SRS, is one of the fastest-growing radiation therapies, a technological innovation designed to target tiny tumors and other anomalies affecting the brain or spinal cord, while minimizing damage to surrounding tissue. [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[166,178],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-5675","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-stevegsposts","7":"category-technologyrunamok","8":"czr-hentry"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ssgreenberg.name\/PoliticsBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5675","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ssgreenberg.name\/PoliticsBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ssgreenberg.name\/PoliticsBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ssgreenberg.name\/PoliticsBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ssgreenberg.name\/PoliticsBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5675"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/ssgreenberg.name\/PoliticsBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5675\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5679,"href":"https:\/\/ssgreenberg.name\/PoliticsBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5675\/revisions\/5679"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ssgreenberg.name\/PoliticsBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5675"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ssgreenberg.name\/PoliticsBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5675"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ssgreenberg.name\/PoliticsBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5675"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}