New copper mesh technology SMART Armor could help protect tissue damage during breast cancer radiation treatment.
A new study just published in the Journal of Applied Clinical Medical Physics says copper is far better than lead in shielding patients during great cancer radiation.
One in eight women will develop breast cancer in their lifetime, the most common cancer in women. Radiotherapy after initial surgery for breast cancer is recommended to reduce the risk of site specific relapse.
But surrounding tissue-and particularly the other breast-can receive radiation dose as an unwanted side effect of the treatment. This so called “peripheral dose” can occur due to X-ray leakage or radiation scattering and can be as large as 20% of maximum dose.
Different types of shielding devices and delivery techniques have been used to overcome the problem, but most had technical issues that reduced their effectiveness.
In this study, we evaluate shielding characteristics of a novel copper scale maille sheet for potential use in dose reduction.
The researchers concluded that “high-density materials, such as copper, can provide substantial shielding effects in radiotherapy cancer treatment. Copper was shown to be superior to lead as a choice of shielding material due to its ability to reduce skin dose to a lower level.”
Copper was also found to be a useful choice of material to create a scale maille style SMART Armor.
Full study: http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/acm2.12158/full
