European Stars And Stripes (Newspaper) - January 27, 1987, Darmstadt, Hesse                                Physicists fashion beam of atoms into by Sandra Blakeslee new York times a Scalpel forged by particle physicists i being used la treat life threatening Braint mors or other abnormalities hat elude surgeons using conventional medical  and More accurate than any surgeon s knife the physicists Scalpel is composed of invisible Hydrogen or helium atoms that have been stripped of their electrons and accelerated in cyclotrons to form particle beams of very High Energy. Scientists Are now adapting heavier ions Lor similar use sharpening the beam s cutting Edge and expanding its applications. The process has found its widest use in brain surgery id Correct conditions hat would otherwise be inoperable because they involve areas that cannot be reached without damage to important surrounding tissue. The technique in still rare however because very Lew  Are available Tor medical use according to or. Raymond Kjellberg who pioneered he use of Proton beam surgery Al Massachusets general Hospital in Boston. He said he hoped the required machinery could eventually be made Small enough and portable enough so that surgeons All around the United states could use the technique. Doctors using the process aim particle beams at targets deep within the brain. The beams Are tuned to Deposit nearly All their Energy right on target sparing surrounding tissue. The distance a beam travels varies depending on How much Energy is put into it. No one hat Ever Jod from this procedure said or. Robert Rand a neurosurgeon at the University of California at los Angeles. Neurosurgeons can t say that about the other people they operate  about 3,000 people have been treated with charged particle beams at two centers in the United states Over the past 25 years a third Center is in the soviet Union. The beams Are produced by cyclotrons devices sex toning the Sugeon t reach a no bum of ton and part cow produced 6� Eyet tron to train toward i get def within Brm. A hum pout Kiwi try comm or Badma pm not he. Hud rower ajiiilii9 at Tho Impi  Down Paul  Thi Nln Wittl it  when a it turn a Bun of orgy Tod Troy Yunmo Rotfer i used almost exclusively by physicists to explore the fundamental nature of Energy and Mailer after world War ii Many Small cyclotrons were built that produced particle beams Well suited for medical applications. But As physicists built Ever bigger cyclotrons smaller machines were dismantled. According to or. Charles Wilson a neurosurgeon at the University of California at san Francisco 15 percent to �0 percent of the patients who need brain operations Are not Good candidates Lor conventional surgery. When a tumor or other abnormality lies very deep Wilwyn the brain or dangerously close to critical brain structures he said neurosurgery May be Loo risky. Pituitary tutors and blood vessel abnormalities known As arteriovenous malformations or arms Tail into this risk category and Are among problems for which particle beam surgery is most suited said or. J Jacob Fabrikant who pioneered the use of helium Ion beam surgery at the University of California at Berkeley i particle beam surgery is fundamentally different from conventional radiation therapy which relies on the the electromagnetic properties of a rays and Gamma rays such rays travel in a straight line through tissue j depositing Energy along the Way and damaging All the cells they encounter. Gamma rays and a rays Are a Good Choice for irradiating Large Ara to of the body. But they Are not j Good for use where brain tissue in concerned. In getting to a target deep inside the brain a rays or Gamma rays. Can easily destroy or damage critical brain tissue. Ii you Ere looking fora Way to Cut a place sharply in new diagnostic machine sees trouble National geographic y the time he was almost 5, Nathan Tower was suffering from severe earaches and headaches. Some nights he was in constant pain and aspirin brought no Relief. Trying to land the cause of his pain Nathan s frantic Mother eventually consulted 11 different doctors. Some of them viewed her As psychotic. When Nathan lost the use of his Lell hand and Arm and began to have trouble with his leg. His distraught parents took him from their British Columbia Home to Reno Nev. Or tests. Doctors saw evidence of a tumor on the brain Stem and called it inoperable. In desperation the towers went to Phoenix s Barrow neurological Institute Al is. Joseph s Hospital and medical Center. Nathan was scheduled fora magnetic resonance imaging Fri scan a technology that had recently arrived at the Hospital. The powerful magnetic Field aligned the Hydrogen nuclei in Nathan brain and a picture was transmitted to a. Screen. There emerged a Rem Skabry Clear image of the Luxor lying at the Baas of the brain. The next Day or. Harold l Rekate chief of paediatric neurosurgery a noved tumor of the Rne Dufla in a delicate operation tasting More than eight hours. To or erased the Bones around Iha spinal Cord and Thowald the tumor dearly said relate. Before my almost no one would have attempted it ten years ago the hrs would have  now to. Neil Han Tower is  Normal Loday no Tonge with a weak Arm and. Leg. Hia overjoyed Page 16 the stars and stripes father plans to raise Money to set up an Fri Center in British Columbia. Magnetic resonance imaging is one of the most dramatic of a new Breed of imaging devices thai has brought More Progress to diagnostic Medicine in the past t5 years than in the entire previous history of Medicine. Howard Sochurek writes in the january National geographic. Mhz depicts soft tissue in High contrast revealing the body s inner Workings As it the exterior has been peeled away. Using no a rays but instead a combination of radio Waves and a Strong magnetic Field Fri sees through Bones and Teeth. The technology focuses on the behaviour of Hydrogen atoms in water molecules allowing it to do certain things better than computed tomography it scanners such As distinguishing Between the brain s White matter and water Rich Gray matter. Because of Mutl s ability to depict Salt tissues in High contrast it has proved effective in examining the spinal Cord. Before Fri doctors had to inject the spinal Cord with an a Ray contrast agent in a potentially risky painful procedure. Fri also has been used to spot the tiny lesions of multiple sclerosis on brain and spinal tissue. Or can spot trouble before it s Felt a Young Volunteer who was scanned was amazed to find he had a huge brain tumor. His Only symptom had been occasional headaches. Sochurek Learned that la is not uncommon for people to live with brain tutors with Little or no Elfeel. The potential of magnetic resonance imaging has become generally recognized Only since 1980. Today tuesday january 27,1987 some 400 machines operate in the untied slates More than in any other country Fri is expensive. The equipment costs about $2 million and it must be in a room completely insulated from external radio frequencies adding another $750,000 to the Cost. Each scan costs about $800. Some of the pioneering work was done at univ realty Hospital in Nottingham England. We had a tiny Magnet recalls prof. Brains Wothington about mris Early Days in 1974. The first thing we looked at was an onion and we saw its inner rings. We had great concern about whet the Magnet might do to human beings., i remember questioning whether too Strong a Field might even have an effect on the human  in 1977 the to chm tried one of the first Fri scans of living human tissue a wrist. Two years later a bold scent isl Volunteer thrust hts head in to the magnetic filed for a brain scan. Today some patients whose bodies contain Metal such As pacemakers Are barred form having or scans. Though Hydrogen i the basis of today s Fri scanning future scanners May use other elements. By analysing the amount of phosphorus in he heart for example physicians could determine at an Earty stage whether the. Muscle tissue was being starved of nourishment by a clogged artery. Future research also May perfect methods of tagging cloned antibodies to search out cancerous tutors. Getting an Fri scan Sochurek writes May become As common As getting an a Ray. I