Cincinnati Business Courier: Flash therapy for cancer

UC researchers treated their first study patient this week using a new cancer therapy that takes less than one second.

The trial, being hosted at the Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center/UC Health Proton Therapy Center, is looking at what is known as "flash" therapy, a new mode of radiation that can be delivered to a patient in as little as a single session that lasts less than one second. It is up to 100 times faster than traditional radiation therapy, which delivers the same dose over minutes. 

The study patient, the first in the world to participate in the clinical trial, was treated this week at the center. Up to 10 patients, whose metastatic cancer has spread to their bones, will participate in the research clinical trial.

John Breneman, MD, a professor emeritus at UC who is medical director of the center, a UC Health radiation oncologist and principal investigator on the study, says the patient's treatment went very well.

“The prior three years of preparation by the researchers, engineers, clinical and physics teams culminated in a treatment that was completed in literally a blink of the eye, and the patient was discharged,” he says.

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Read coverage at Healthcare Business News.

Read the Cincinnati Children's media release.

Featured photo of the Cincinnati Children's/UC Health Proton Therapy Center taken in 2019 by Colleen Kelley/UC Creative + Brand.