Talk:External beam radiotherapy

message: Are you sure this isn't supposed to be "proton" instead of "photon" throughout the section?  I hardly ever hear the word "photon" referenced to particle beams.  I'd think they'd be more associated with laser applications.  
Fd-gunslinger (talk) 21:54, 1 December 2008 (UTC)
replies: text: "Photon" is correct. The article doesn't say much about how a medical linac works in the first place, and that generates some confusion. It also refers to X-rays as photons, which, while true, creates a little more confusion because it is a more abstract term. The way that a medical linac works (very briefly) is that it accelerates electrons first, taking advantage of their electrical and magnetic properties to push them to very high speeds in a straight line. This is done with both a voltage potential difference and a microwave beam. The electrons gain a large amount of kinetic energy through this process. Then, to produce x-rays, the electrons are directed into a target that stops them abruptly. Some of the electrons' kinetic energy is converted into x-rays, and these x-rays in turn are beamed into the patient. X-rays have no mass. They are pure electromagnetic radiation, just like visible light and radio waves. The term photon applies to a unit of electromagnetic radiation, whether it be visible light, x-rays, radiowaves, etc. --BAW (talk) 14:32, 26 February 2010 (UTC)
thread_title:  Protons/Light Ions? 

message: It would seem appropriate to mention cobalt machines together with Linacs. Cobalt EBRT has far more application on a world-wide basis than betatrons or exotic high LET particles.Jellytussle 23:10, 14 October 2005 (UTC)
replies: text: The article does mention Co sources in the second paragraph.  It could definitely be expanded upon, as it is very common.  The layout in that part is a little choppy; there's no reason to separate the radioisotope sources from the machines.  Proton therapy is hardly exotic, and there is already a wikipedia page on it, so a link should be provided at the very least.  Worldwide, proton therapy is becoming more and more common.  Also, there are carbon ion treatment centers in Europe and Japan, and quite a few are in the works (none in the US, our government doesn't chip in for that kind of thing...). The improvements these methods make (in the results I've read) over traditional EBRT warrant at least their mention.  AtomBum 20:30, 16 October 2005 (UTC)
thread_title:  Cobalt 

message: Neutrons
This is not a stub.
: I've been bold and removed it. Could have been a request for someone to add more content, I suppose; if it was yours please add some content for it! Stonejag 10:14, 22 May 2007 (UTC)
thread_title:  Error? 

message: I note sbHarris's recent amendment, and the link to the Triumf pion page, which is very old. In fact Triumf stopped using pions a number of years ago after their own research showed them to be of no real benefit e.g.
Prostate cancer: Int J Radiat Oncol Biol Phys. 1999 Jan 1;43(1):47-55
Glioblastoma: Int J Radiat Oncol Biol Phys. 1997 Feb 1;37(3):491-7.
suggest delete mention of pions and the Triumf link. Jellytussle (talk) 16:17, 18 August 2011 (UTC)
replies: text: I think that it would be worthwhile to include a brief discussion of pions as a subject of historical interest, but I agree that we should make clear that they are no longer in clinical use. TenOfAllTrades(talk) 12:47, 19 August 2011 (UTC)
thread_title:  Hadrons 

message: The article on radiation therapy has  a section on external beam radiotherapy which links to subtopics. That section should be a summary of this article, but there is not much congruence between these two right now.  Blue Rasberry (talk) 14:10, 1 November 2013 (UTC)
thread_title:  Need for synergy 

message: An editor has asked for a discussion to address the redirect Teletherapy. Please participate in the redirect discussion if you wish to do so.  Interstellarity (talk) 11:56, 25 April 2020 (UTC)
thread_title:  "Teletherapy" listed at [[Wikipedia:Redirects for discussion|Redirects for discussion]]