Medical Physics in Radiotherapy

Medical Physics In Support Of Effective Radiotherapy

Medical Physics In Support Of Effective Radiotherapy

Introduction

Medical physics is the application of physics to medicine. It focuses on physics as applied to medical imaging and radiotherapy. Medical physics has seen numerous developments in the past few years, out of which the significant progress has been in the area of radiotherapy. Considering these benefits, the essay highlights the support of medical physic in the area of radiotherapy by identifying the concept of medical physics and the development of radiotherapy.

Medical Physics Supporting Clinical Services

Medical physics is the branch of physics that involve the application of the concepts, laws, models, techniques and methods of physics to the prevention, diagnosis and treatment of diseases. The medical physics now plays a pivotal role in medical, biological and medical research, and optimization of health activities. The medical physics includes the areas of radiation physics, physics of radiology, nuclear medicine physics and physics of radiation protection (Camber, 2008, 78).

The importance of medical physics in radiotherapy is evident from the fact that physics applications in medicine have increased steadily, in variety and quantity, from the early twentieth century. New treatment modalities (radiotherapy with photons, electrons, protons and light ions, and modulated conformal radiotherapy intensity, high-rate brachytherapy and stereotactic radio surgery dose, etc.) and diagnostic (positron emission tomography, positron emission photon unique digital radiology, MRI and ultrasound, among others) have increased the number of physicians in hospitals around the world, and that their academic formation and clinical training to suit the demands of advanced technologies. The technologies are ever increasing and so are the benefits to the physicians (Camber, 2008, 81). The radiology and nuclear medicine group in so-called imaging in which case the therapeutic aspects of diagnostic medicinal tools relates to radiation therapy, or more generally, the radio therapy. Other areas of interest in physics are medical metrology of ionizing radiation, magnetic resonance, applications laser, ultrasound and other techniques involving physical concepts applied to medicine. There are medical applications that are too complex even for highly skilled doctors. When such cells operate with radioactive irradiation, the laws of physics come into play and require the involvement of physical scientists to implement them (McDermott, 2010, 96).

Support to Effective Radiotherapy

From the beginning in 1890s, radiotherapy has developed into a reliable, robust and cost effective clinical tool. It has led the researchers to claim that physicist work is easily done with the help of sophisticated radiotherapy tools. However, the advancements in treatment planning technology and method of dose delivery are welcome, but the impact on patients; clinical outcome is minimal. The view is that the research and development in medical physics is unlikely to alter the radiotherapy outcomes (McDermott, 2010, 100). This view is supported by numerous members if the radiotherapy physics community itself. Radiotherapy is the use of high-energy rays usually X-rays to destroy cancerous cells. Radiation is very effective to eliminate the fast-growing cells such as breast cancer. During radiation therapy, some of the healthy cells are damaged, but they can ...