Just as medical isotopes from the finally restarted nuclear reactor at Chalk River, Ontario, have begun trickling into the supply pipeline, doctors at a national symposium warned of the possible consequences of the current isotope shortage.

Before it was unexpectedly shut down in May 2009, the Chalk River plant had produced up to a third of the world’s medical isotopes—and half … read more »

A new drug protects mice from radiation damage to bone marrow, even if taken up to 20 hours after radiation exposure, according to the research team that developed it.

While some current drugs offer some protection from radiation toxicity if ingested in advance, this would be the first “radiomitigant,” able to mitigate bone-marrow damage even when taken after radiation exposure.

Norman Sharpless, … read more »

Tiny particles covered with melanin and injected into the body may protect bone marrow from damage during radiation therapy for cancer, judging from the results of experiments on mice.

Scientists at Albert Einstein College of Medicine of Yeshiva University in New York described their research in the International Journal of Radiation Oncology•Biology•Physics.

Melanin, the pigment that gives skin and hair its color, … read more »

Part 2 of 2 on gene mutations and radiation:

Children with a mutated TP53 gene in a choroid plexus carcinoma (CPC) may be harmed by radiation treatments. The gene, also known as P53, is evident in other cancers besides CPC, which usually strikes very young children and counts as three to four percent of brain tumors in that age group.

 Physicians from Toronto’s Hospital for … read more »

Part 1 of 2 on gene mutations and radiation:

Women with rare mutations in the ataxia telangiectasia mutated (ATM) gene and who undergo radiation treatments for cancer in one breast have an increased chance of developing cancer in the other breast. The gene has already been linked to DNA damage after ionizing radiation.

The results, in an article in Medical News Today, were … read more »

The FDA announced Tuesday the launch of an initiative to cut unneeded radiation exposure from three kinds of medical imaging procedures: computed tomography (CT), nuclear medicine studies, and flouroscopy. These three are the biggest contributors to total radiation exposure for Americans and use much higher radiation doses than other imaging procedures, such as standard X-rays, dental X-rays, and mammograms.

While CT, … read more »

Distinguishing between benign and malignant liver tumors using contrast-enhanced ultrasound images (CEUS) takes an experienced eye, Italian researchers say. While CEUS can be helpful in diagnosing liver tumors, interpreting such images can be a challenge, according to the researchers. 

The team’s study, which appears in the current issue of Journal of Ultrasound Medicine, used retrospective data from 286 biopsy-proven liver tumors … read more »

One of the more perplexing problems in nuclear medicine is the differentiation of recurrent cerebral neoplasm from radiation necrosis. … read more »

The objective of a recent study was to assess whether the enhancement pattern found on MRI is capable of differentiating between clear-cell, papillary, and chromophobe subtypes of RCC. … read more »

A recent study was conducted to determine if the presence of focal normal bone marrow fat signal within a tumor on MRI excludes malignancy, and to assess inter-observer accuracy. … read more »