Damon Runyon Researchers

Though radiation therapy is a key treatment for many solid tumors, healthy surrounding tissue can be damaged through inadvertent exposure leading to serious side effects. Dr. Schuemann aims to establish if “extreme dose rate (EDR) proton therapy” can be used to spare healthy tissue while treating solid tumors. With new EDR technology, proton radiation therapy is delivered extremely fast—whole treatments in milliseconds. However, the mechanism underlying the reduction in side effects is still unknown. This research will focus on gastrointestinal irradiations but has the potential to be applied to nearly all cancer types. These results may demonstrate how EDR treatments can greatly improve radiation therapy outcome.