Combating Cancer As Rates Rise

March 26, 2009

Statistics Canada says more Canadians are living with cancer than ever before, the result of more frequent detection and improving survival rates. And the Canadian Cancer Society says more than 40 per cent of Canadian women and almost 45 per cent of men will develop cancer during their lifetimes. As a research- intensive university, Carleton is leading several projects devoted to the disease.

The following researchers are available to discuss their areas of expertise:

Paul Johns, professor, department of physics
Email: johns@physics.carleton.ca

Paul Johns and his students have shown that current x-ray imaging technology does not provide the full image.  Johns' group is developing an x-ray technique which uses radiation that has been scattered in the patient, and that was previously discarded as having no value.  In fact, tissues such as fat, muscle and bone show greater contrast when examined with scattered x rays than with the conventional approach.  Eventually, it will be possible to combine scatter imaging with conventional imaging to get more information for the same radiation x-ray dose.

David Rogers, Canada Research Chair in Medical Physics and professor, department of physics
Email: drogers@physics.carleton.ca
Many cancer patients are treated with large amounts of radiation that frequently destroy the tumour or, in palliative cases, shrink it enough to greatly improve the patient's quality of life. A vital part of this treatment involves accurately measuring the amount of radiation being delivered, and planning how to give a large enough dose to the tumour while giving as little as possible to the patient's healthy tissues.
Rogers has helped extend a technique called the Monte Carlo simulation of radiation transport to both applications in radiotherapy.  This computer-based method uses random numbers and knowledge of how individual electrons and photons interact in matter to track a large number of these particles as they move through the patient or through a measuring device. The results of Rogers' research are used for almost every patient undergoing external beam radiotherapy in North America.

James Wright, distinguished research professor, department of chemistry
Tel: 613-520-2600, ext. 3645
Menopausal women are in a predicament – they often take hormone replacement therapy to ease the discomfort experience during menopause, yet doing so increases the risk of breast cancer.  Wright has designed a synthetic hormone supplement that may be potent enough to help ease the symptoms of menopause, without the carcinogenic properties. 

Tong Xu, assistant professor, department of physics
Tel: 613-520-2600, ext. 8794
External beam radiation therapy is one of the main treatments for cancerous tumours. However, the treatment becomes difficult if the tumour inside the body does not stay still, i.e. lung tumours. In such cases, there is high risk of damaging the surrounding normal tissue instead of killing the tumour. Xu is developing a tracking tool with the potential to provide direct measurement of the tumour location in real-time to prevent damaging healthy tissue during radiation therapy.