Nurses Role in Educating:
The Effectiveness of Proton Beam Therapy in Pediatric Patients
Proton Beam therapy (PBT) is one of the latest advancements in radiation therapy used to treat cancer. According to UF Health Proton Therapy Institute (2017), it is an advanced form of radiation therapy that uses protons rather than traditional X-rays. It targets tumors and cancer cells more precisely. This means less damage to surrounding tissue, which results in a lower risk of side effects and a better quality of life during and after cancer treatment. PBT in clinical practice has been slowly introduced but has gained significant ground since 2010 as stated by Doyle-Lindrud (2015).
There are about 12,000 new cases of pediatric cancer that occur each
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This allowed the researchers to update information needed and accurately obtain data necessary to compare their findings. They concluded that proton beam therapy may reduce the dose to normal brain tissue by approximately half compared with conformal radiotherapy (Mizumoto et al., 2015). It was reviewed by the institutional review board and accepted on January 8, 2015.
Research Study #2
The purpose of this study was to compare the acute toxicities of proton beam therapy (PrBT) relative to conventional photon beam therapy (PhBT) in children with brain tumors (Song et al., 2014). The team prospectively evaluated the hematological and gastrointestinal toxicities in 30 patients who underwent PrBT between April 2008 and December 2012. They retrospectively evaluated medical records of 13 patients who underwent PhBT between April 2003 and April 2012.
This study was a quasi-experimental with a level 2 and it had a grade of B even though the sample size was small it is large enough under the circumstances of the study and the sample they are trying to gain. The results were consistent and there was a definitive conclusion based on a comprehensive literature
Fitzgerald, M., et al. “Red/near-infrared irradiation therapy for treatment of central nervous system injuries and disorders.” Rev. Neurosci. 24.2: (2013): 205-26.
the effective doses from diagnostic CT procedures are typically estimated to be in the range of 1 to 10 mSv. This range is not much less than the lowest doses of 5 to 20 mSv estimated to have been received by some of the Japanese survivors of the atomic bombs. These survivors, who are estimated to have experienced doses slightly larger than those encountered in CT, have demonstrated a small but increased radiation-related excess relative risk for
While this study did not produce the result we wanted, we believe that we could use the information learned from this study and develop a study that would be more effective.
2. External Beam Radiation Therapy (EBRT) which is usually offered when the lung cancer is either considered to be primary, or when it has metastasized (spread to other organs). This form of treatment uses a linear accelerator machine to focus a precise beam of radiation on a given area of the body for a precise period of time to kill off cancerous cells.
Going into details of the article, I realized that the necessary information needed to evaluate the experimental procedures were not included. However, when conducting an experiment, the independent and dependent variable are to be studied before giving a final conclusion.
At this day in age we are constantly trying to improve the field of medicine in any way that we possibly can. We cherish every birthday and continually try to prolong life. Not only through every field of medicine, especially in terms of cancer. The American Cancer Society is “the official sponsor of birthdays” and is making leaps and bounds in the types of care that cancer patients receive. One of these many breakthroughs is the practice of Stereotactic (Body) Radiotherapy or S(B)RT. SBRT and other radiation therapies have the ability to greatly improve the way that we treat the issue of cancer and the variation of treatment options; however, they have raised the concerns of long term effects from radiation and cost-effectiveness. As research has begun to show, radiation therapies are having great success in curing cancer.
The article cites very little of the actual facts of the study making the claims harder to accept and more susceptible to critique. The study itself seems to have overlooked some added external effects and made some assumptions critical to the issue. One factor discussed in class is the size of the study and the people comprising the study. The study size is a decent study size of 37,000. However, the study does not specify some serious factors, such as family size, the structure of the family, the age of the participants and how long the study followed children.
mentioned studies have limitations which cannot be ignored during the evaluation. These limitations are very critical and they can even cause misleading results.
Radiation therapists work closely with patients to fight cancer. According to Health Care Careers, Oncologists, Dosimetrists and nurses are some of the professionals that a radiation therapist works with while caring for a cancer patient. This group of professionals will determine a specialized treatment plan. The first step usually includes a CT scan performed by a radiologist to find the exact area that needs to be targeted with x-rays. Next, the therapist uses a special machine that emits radiation called a Linear Accelerator. They use this machine during a treatment called external beam therapy. During this process, the Linear Accelerator will project x-rays at targeted cancer cells or tumors. Another therapist will be in a different room monitoring the patient’s viral signs until the procedure is over. The external therapy l...
...s suppose to help but things can go wrong. The side effects to radiation therapy are less suaver than chemotherapy but hair and skin are usually effected. The treatments that they have are very little and helps but sometimes it results in a person dieing. Brain cancer is a scary thing and affects people in so many different ways.
Bomford, C.K., & Kunkler, I.H. (2003) Walter and Miller’s Textbook of radiotherapy: radiation, physics, therapy and oncology (6th ed.). London: Churchill Livingstone
As the number of the sample is established, it is expected that the degrees of freedom of the research will be between 38 and 48. The alpha level for the research is 0.5. Taking into consideration the established degrees of freedom and the alpha level of 0.5, the critical value is expected to be either 2.042 or 2.000 (Gerstman, 2016). The confidence level that the null hypothesis is correct will be at 95%. The collected data will be analyzed with the use of Microsoft Excel.
Radiotherapy is considered the corner stone for treating locally advanced head and neck tumors. It may be the only treatment modality for head and neck tumors (radical therapy) or it may be following surgery (adjuvant therapy) to destroy any residual malignant cells which can't be removed surgically. Regimens of radiotherapy often consist of definite number of fractions (doses) given over a set period of time. For any type of head and neck tumors, patients should be examined by dentist before beginning radiotherapy because it can cause tooth decay, damaged teeth may need to be removed. patents also should be evaluated by a speech pathologists to deal with problems resulting after radiotherapy. For tumor local control, doses up to 72 Gy (with conventional fractionation of 2Gy) can be used depending on the tumor site and stage. Doses up to 54 Gy are suitable for eradicating microscopic malignant cells followed by shrinking field techniques to deliver higher doses to Gross tumor volume (GTV) or areas with high risk. RT for (H&N) patients is considered one of the most challenging tasks in radiotherapy because this region distinguish by its complex anatomy and the planning target volume (PTV) with the convex shape containing the spinal cord (the most vital OAR at this site), has a large extension. Each development in RT technology has been performed to achieve promising balance between highly required tumor local control and sparing critical organs at risk. Despite the alteration from conventional 2D treatment planning to 3dimensional conformal planning radiation therapy (3DCRT) was considered a revolution in RT as a result of target delineation is often carried out slice by slice based on computed tomography (CT) images (which in turn presents more accurate tumor definition and dose calculation), the classic 3DCRT technique (which
One of the strengths of this study was also the research design that was used which was a randomized trial. There are different levels of external research designs. Randomized Clincial Trials and Systematic Reviews are considered level 1 ,which is considered to most
... is a Level III, a controlled trial without randomization. Since the schools and children in this study were conveniently selected from a metropolitan city, there is possibility for selection bias and can reduce accuracy of the results.