It's Not Too Late to Radiate!

We are all aware of the use of high-energy radiation to kill cancer cells within the body. The problem has always been in not wiping out more of numerous good ones while attempting to eliminate the radiation-susceptible cancer cells. After years of experiments with nice, Dr. Kiyohiko Sakamoto is giving hormesis-level doses along with his X-ray treatment for non-Hodgkin's lymphoma. Figure 30 shows the latest update of his work.

Patients with augmentation doses - typically 10 rad (cGy) by X-ray three times a week for five weeks - had a survival rate 68% greater than the patients without augmentation. It seems odd to me that the hormetic level radiation is given after, not prior to the larger suppressive dose. But then, it's hard to argue with success.

Source for Figure 30 Non-Hodgkin's Lymphoma Survival: Sakamoto, Kiyohiko. Survival of stage I and II of non-Hodgkin's lymphoma treated local irradiation only or combined treatment of TBI [Total Body Irradiation] and local irradiation. Journal of JASTRO, Sept. 1997. An earlier report on the same subject with wider availability is: Sakamoto, K. and Myojin, M. Fundamental and clinical studies on tumor control by total body irradiation. American Nuclear Society Transactions, 75, 404, 1996.