Die Neutronentherapie: Ein Experimentalsystem der Radioonkologie

Abstract

NeutronT herapy:A nE xperimentalS ystemi nRadiooncology. The historyofthe useo fneutronsinradiotherapywillberevisited by focusing on theideas, theories andexperiments that ledtofirst clinical studies. Foraddressingepistemological questionsr egarding biological effectso ff astn eutrons, then otiono fa n" experimental system"i se mployed andi ts evolutiono vert imed iscussed.T aking up thea nalytical frameworko fH ans-Jçrg Rheinberger, biologicale ffects andt he physical instrument "cyclotron"a re conceptualized in termso fe pistemic andt echnical objects. It is shown that thee pistemic object "biological effectso fn eutrons" couldn ever reacht he status of atechnical object and-more strikingly -t hatthe cyclotronitselfreturnedtobeing an epistemico bject in thec ontext of medicine.S ot here is am isunderstandingo ft he differentr oles epistemica nd technicalo bjects have to play in thef ramework of an experimental system.T hism isunderstandingl ed to today'sh ighlyc ontroversial discussionsabout theapplication of neutrons in radiotherapy. Schlüsselwçrter: Neutronentherapie, Zyklotron, Lawrence Lab, HammersmithH ospital, epistemischesO bjekt,t echnisches Objekt,E xperimentalsystem, Differenzund Wiederholung 1Einleitung Als RobertS.S tone (1895 -1966) am 9. Juni 1947 in AtlantaCityimRahmendes 29. Annual Meetingofthe American RadiumSociety überseine Arbeiten zur Neutronentherapieberichtete, zeichneteerein eher düsteres Bild.Stone selbst waresgewesen,der das Neutronb ereits 1938, sechsJ ahre nach seiner Entdeckung,i nd er Strahlentherapief ür eine intensiveB ehandlungv on Krebspatienten einzusetzenb egonnenh atte.V on 1938 bis1 943 hattee ri mC rockerR adiation Laba nd er University of California,M edical School, in SanF rancisco 250P atienten mits chnellenN eutronen bestrahlt. 1 Erzeugt wurden diesemit Hilfedes von Ernest OrlandoLawrence(1901 -1958) 1930 konzipier-tenZ yklotrons.A ls Stone1 947 dieJ anewayM emorialL ecture hielt, waren bereits vier Jahrev ergangen,s eitd ie letztenB estrahlungen appliziert wurden.S tone konnte somit auch auferste Spätfolgen derBehandlungenrekurrieren -h ierzeigtesichdas Dilemma. T. Kohl,D r. phil.nat.M.A., Universitätz uL übeck,I nstitutf ürM edizingeschichte undW issenschaftsforschung( IMGWF),K çnigstraße 42,

Fast and Furious: Fast Neutron Therapy in Cancer Treatment

“…Despite the allegation of high toxicity of FNT [91,92] (based on largely outdated sets of clinical evidence in terms of irradiation regimens and equipment used for neutron beam generation), FNT holds great promise for the treatment of various radioresistant tumors with critically limited therapeutic options [93]. Contemporary studies continue to accumulate essential radiobiological data on high-LET therapy involving proton and C-ion irradiation applicable to FNT of similar parameters (eg, Bragg peak, ionization density) [94,95].…”