Click here to go to our page on cocal acoustics
Click here to go to our main page on medical applications of microwaves
Click here to go to our main page on RF ablation
Click here to go to a page on RF ablation of varicose veins
Click here to go to a page on RF ablation of spinal nerves
Click here to go to a daughter page on VSWR problems encountered in medical applications.
The field of medical use of microwaves (or RF) is a huge industery, and is more important than our sorrowful content can do it justice. If you have any experience in this field and like to write about it, please contact us!
The Varian boys out of Stanford (Microwave Hall of Famers!) pretty much made Medical Linear Accelerators the mainstay of cancer treatment with their research in the 1940's, eclipsing the use of active Cobalt 60 radiation sources with a much more controllable and "power-off" safe radiation source. From the early 1970's to today, the Medical LINAC (portmanteau for linear particle accelerator) has been the work horse of the medical cancer treatment industry.
Just yesterday (euphemistically speaking) we had Thyratrons, triggering Klystrons, modulating outputs of electron guns, with outputs running down waveguides, through bunching and steering coils, pulling 270 degree turns with bending magnets to precisely "nail" a target to output a selection of as many as six different electron energies and maybe 4 photon energies from anywhere in a 360 degree rotation. Yes, with a waveguide rotational coupling.
Today (literally) Computed Tomography (radiological CT) and Linear Accelerator technology have been married together into a single system with a common source to deliver the most precisely controlled radiation dose that has ever been delivered.
Research in the use of microwave in medicine is being carried out at University of Wisconsin, Dartmouth College, Duke University, University of Bath, Bangor University and at many other leading universities. The technology has successfully been commercialised into treatments offered by a number of companies including Covidien, BSD medical, H.S. Hospital Service, Neuwave and an ever increasing number of other organizations.
In the field of oncology MW ablation now offers a new tool in the arsenal of weapons to fight cancer, providing new opportunities to save many lives.
Microwaves made it happen.