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Cobalt therapy is the medical use of gamma rays from the radioisotope cobalt-60 to treat conditions such as cancer.Beginning in the 1950s, cobalt-60 was widely used in external beam radiotherapy (teletherapy) machines, which produced a beam of gamma rays which was directed into the patient's body to kill tumor tissue.
Gamma Knife therapy, like all radiosurgery, uses doses of radiation to kill cancer cells and shrink tumors, delivered precisely to avoid damaging healthy brain tissue. Gamma Knife radiosurgery is able to accurately focus many beams of gamma radiation on one or more tumors.
Radiation therapy (RT) is in itself painless, but has iatrogenic side effect risks. Many low-dose palliative treatments (for example, radiation therapy to bony metastases) cause minimal or no side effects, although short-term pain flare-up can be experienced in the days following treatment due to oedema compressing nerves in the treated area ...
External beam radiation therapy (EBRT) is a form of radiotherapy that utilizes a high-energy collimated beam of ionizing radiation, from a source outside the body, to target and kill cancer cells. A radiotherapy beam is composed of particles which travel in a consistent direction; each radiotherapy beam consists of one type of particle intended ...
is about 662 keV. These gamma rays can be used, for example, in radiotherapy such as for the treatment of cancer, in food irradiation, or in industrial gauges or sensors. 137 Cs is not widely used for industrial radiography as other nuclides, such as cobalt-60 or iridium-192, offer higher radiation output for a given volume.
In astrophysics, gamma rays are conventionally defined as having photon energies above 100 keV and are the subject of gamma-ray astronomy, while radiation below 100 keV is classified as X-rays and is the subject of X-ray astronomy. Gamma rays are ionizing radiation and are thus hazardous to life.
Cobalt therapy, using beams of gamma rays from 60 Co teletherapy machines to treat cancer. Radiation source for industrial radiography. [9] Radiation source for leveling devices and thickness gauges. [9] Radiation source for pest insect sterilization. [10] As a radiation source for food irradiation and blood irradiation. [8]
After radioiodine treatment the urine will be radioactive or 'hot', and the patients themselves will also emit gamma radiation. Depending on the amount of radioactivity administered, it can take several days for the radioactivity to reduce to the point where the patient does not pose a radiation hazard to bystanders.