Role of synchrotron radiation in cancer: A review on techniques and applications

Abstract

Abstract In spite of the scientific and technological advancement of radiotherapy over the past decades, only calming therapy is accessible for high-grade cancer tumors. This often only extends the survival of individual patients by a few months. During the last three decades, many research groups have carried out experiments and trials to develop novel imaging and radiotherapy techniques for cancer treatments, based on the use of synchrotron X-rays. There are numerous synchrotron biomedical stations around the world, which put forward an admirable platform to improve either the radiotherapy treatment or imaging diagnosis for various cancer tumors. Synchrotron radiation with exclusively biological and physical advantages might signify an inventive approach for cancer treatment. In this time, various Synchrotron radiation-based photon activation therapies have been developed, and the results of in vitro and in vivo experiments are very promising. It is essential to comprehend the physical and radiobiological principles of novel strategies before these are applied at the clinical level. In this paper, we summarize the various techniques in terms of physical and biological and their applications.