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Running Head: TECHNOLOGY HELPS WITH CANCER OPTIONS

Advances in Technology Help With Early Cancer Diagnosis and Treatment Options
Hannah Benson
Sheridan High School
October 13, 2015

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Abstract
New technology has helped cancer patients by providing information on early diagnosis and new
treatment options. One study showed that researches have created a tool to help predict if a
patient will be able to survive breast cancer. This new tool is about eighty percent accurate.
Another study showed that nuclear therapies, such as radiation, are being used to control cancer
cells. Radiation is able to destroy cancer cells that can be removed through surgery. Also, rapid
prototyping is making it possible to build 3D structural tumors and examine these models for
diagnosis and operational planning. This is helping present changes in cancer tumors. New
technology is helping cancer patients by predicting their survival rate and giving them new
treatment options to help them beat this disease.

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Advances in Technology Help With Early Cancer Diagnosis and Treatment Options
Wouldnt it be nice to know ahead of time what your chances of surviving cancer are?
Many cancer patients dont know they have cancer until its too late, but with the new technology
today this problem has been decreasing. New technology has helped cancer patients by
providing information on early diagnosis and new treatment options.
A new tool has been created to help doctors predict whether a patient with breast cancer
will be able to survive the disease. According to Jordana Huber, author of Breast Cancer
Survival More Predictable; Research Helps Identify Best Treatment Options, this new
technology analyzes breast cancer tumors and can predict, with more than an eighty percent
accuracy, a patient's chance of survival. Dr. Jeff Wrana, a senior investigator at the Samuel
Lunenfeld Research Institute of Toronto's Mount Sinai Hospital, states that researchers
developed this tool to analyze networks of proteins in cancer cells. By analyzing these proteins
they are able to use the differences to help predict outcomes of new patients. This technology
was used in a study of 350 patients. Wrana states that those who survived breast cancer had a
different organization of the networks of proteins within the tumour cells than those who
succumbed to the illness. Researches are hoping to apply the technology, called DyNeMo, to
other types of cancers. DyNeMo is still five years away from clinical use, but it will serve to
benefit patients and clinicians in providing better choices to deal with this disease.
Radiation therapy is a new tool that has been extremely helpful in cancer treatments.
Radiation is helpful when doctors cant surgically remove the cancer. According to Ali Kamrani
and Maryam Azimi, authors of Fighting Cancer With High Technology, radiation can also be
used following surgery to destroy cancer cells that werent removed or prior to surgery to shrink
a previously inoperable tumor to a manageable size. The whole objective to radiation therapy is

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to give the right dosage to the cancerous region without damaging the surrounding tissue. Most
planning systems assume the tumor geometry doesnt change during treatment, this is false
according to Kamrani and Azimi. Studies have shown that the size of the tumor may expand or
shrink due to radiation. University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center constructed a model
that monitors and predicts daily tumor volume changes. Kamrani and Azimi stated that this
information has provided feedback that will help with therapy planning that can improve patient
safety and quality of life by increasing the accuracy of each therapy. Based on the prediction
model new treatment plans will be developed.
Rapid prototyping is a manufacturing technique that creates various 3-D geometries by
means of layer-by-layer construction. CT images can be removed to build a series of models of
the tumors anatomy using the rapid prototyping. According to Kamrani and Azimi, rapid
prototyping is being used for surgical planning, prosthesis and implants and direct manufacture
of biologically active implants. These models provide information for diagnosis and operational
planning. Prototypes of CT scanned data are used to inspect and measure the geometry of the
tumors as they go through deformation using sensors. When combining rapid prototyping with
image processing it is possible to present the changes of cancer tumors. The results of this study
could have a huge impact on head and neck cancer patients by reducing the number of timeconsuming and repetitive CT and MRI scans performed during radiation therapy states Kamrani
and Azimi.
New technologies have changed the way people look at cancer. It used to be seen as a
disease that patients rarely had any chance to survive, but now they can see that people can
survive it. Andrew C. von Eschenbach, author of A vision for the National Cancer Program in
the United States," said that in 1971 there were 3 million cancer survivors in the United States,
now there are over 10 million. With these technologies doctors have been able to give cancer
patients hope of survival. Cancer patients are now being given estimates on their survival rate

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and better treatment options, so they are able to make wiser decisions based on the information
their doctors can give them.

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Reference
Azimi, M., & Kamrani, A. (2012 February). Fighting cancer with high technology: IE techniques
combine with rapid prototyping in nuclear medicine [Electronic version]. 38-43.
Huber, J. (2009, February). Breast cancer survival more predictable; research helps identify best
treatment options [Electronic version]. Edmonton Journal, 1-2.
Eschenbach, Andrew C., (2004 October). A vision for the national cancer program in the united
states. [Electronic Version]. 4, 820-828.