Use of low energy x-rays for Skin Cancer Treatment

Author: Maia Topeshashvili
Co-authors: Eduard Chikvaidze
Keywords: Radiotherapy, malignant skin cancer, low energy x-rays, x-ray deposition, LET (linear energy transfer)
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Georgia has more than 100 years experience in radiotherapy. Through multiple advances radiotherapy is quite effective for malignant skin cancer treatment with perfect cosmetic results, which is the main goal of all treatment types. Experience showed, that the relative biological effectiveness (RBE) of photons increases with decreasing photon energy. The phenomenon is understood theoretically, in that as the energy of the photons decreases, the energy of the secondary electrons emitted in the photon interactions decreases, with a corresponding increase in stopping power (linear energy transfer, LET). For example, the LET of a 15 keV secondary photoelectron is around 2 keV m-1 which is about 10 times more compared with high energy electron beams. Increased biological effectiveness of low-energy x-rays have been demonstrated in a variety of different publications. Georgia, as a developing country has about 10 years experience in advanced radiotherapy technologies. Although it has about 3 years experience in using advanced technologies of low-energy x-ray generators for malignant skin cancer treatment. Applicators, with possibility to optimize dose at different depths allow to treat skin cancers at different depths with maximum protection of surrounding normal structures.