14 DAY TRIAL // Tumors, and cancer in general, are one of the most deadly and painful things to succumb to. Fortunately, quite a few cancer strains are benign tumors, meaning that if you manage to get them out surgically, you're home free.
Even the symptoms of malign cancer can be alleviated through surgeries, though you shouldn't hold out much hope for it ever going completely away.
To make it easier to target tumors for precise treatment, a team of cancer researchers from Great Britain have begun to use 3D replicas of them.
Made based on 3D models derived from CT scans, these “phantoms” allow doctors to pinpoint the location and flows of radiopharmaceuticals within the body.
For example, you could make a plastic mold of a tumor and fill it with liquid, thus showing medics and technicians how treatments would progress.
Radiotherapy has long been likened to “exposing yourself to radiation and hoping the cancer dies before you do.” With this 3D printing-based method of planning, the odds will be better stacked in your favor.
Thyroid cancer, adult neuroendocrine tumors, cases of childhood neuroblastoma and bone metastases are the main cancer strains being treated this way, for now.
