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Universitty Dalv Kansan, April 21, 1981
Radiation technology aids cancer victims
By BRIAN LEVINSON Staff Reporter
KANSAS CITY, Kan.-Television cameras scan the rooms. Their monitors and an array of computers create a 21st century feeling. Heating, ventilation and underground building are ?food, thick reinforced concrete walls
Despite its appearance, the building is not a futuristic Pentagon. It is the Mid-America radiation therapy center at University of Kansas Medical Center.
The center, one of the top 10 in the country, treats between 100 and 120 patients daily for tumors, according to M. Mansfield, the center's director.
MOST OF THE patients receive treatment daily, for an average of 5 to 6 weeks. Eighty percent of the patients are seen on an outpatient basis.
"We take a CT (computerized-axial tomography) scan of the tumor." Manfield said. "Using that and x-rays, we come up with a contour diagram of the area of the patient's body where the tumor is."
The contour information is then fed into a computer, which analyzes it and assists the doctors in deciding the best configuration of radiation, Mismeld said.
"Eventually, computers will be able to take all of the information, consider all of the treatment options and decide on the most optimal plan," he said.
COMPUTERS PLAY a big role in the treatment of the patients. Each patient has his own computer tape with all of the information about his treatment,
"When a patient is brought in for
treatment, the computer checks the treatment machine to see that it is set properly for that patient, according to his tape," ManSField said.
If the machine is set properly for the patient, the computer allows the treatment to begin, Mansfield said. But if the machine is set incorrectly, the computer shows the treatment technician what is wrong, and doesn't allow treatment to begin until the problem is corrected.
problem in current
The therapy center has four treatment machines that range from 1 million electron volts to 40 MEV.
"The 40 MEV accelerator is one of only five machines in the country," Mansfield said. "It takes four rooms to house it."
THE MACHINE allows doctors to treat deep tumors without damaging normal skin tissue.
The 40 MEV machine weighs $17 \frac{1}{2}$ tons.
"It fires electrons from a gun through a linear accelerator," Mansfield explained. "Then, magnets bend the beam up, and back down on the
"OUR PATIENTS get the benefit of a multi-modality approach to treatment," Mansfield said. "That is the theme in medicine now."
Doctors at the radiation therapy center work with their colleagues at the Med Center's cancer treatment center and surgeons.
"This is the state-of-the-art approach to cancer treatment in this country," Mansfield said.
University Relations photo
Two KU Med Center radiation technologists assist a patient as they prepare him for a radiation therapy treatment.
On the Record
Bob Joe Bugg, Medicine Lodge freshman, faces a preliminary hearing Wednesday. He is being held in the Douglas County Cail on $25,000 ball.
A KU student was charged Friday in Douglas County District Court with one count of aggravated robbery in connection with the Wednesday afternoon robbery of the Midland Quick Shop in Douglas County District Court records.
The witnesses, employees of Hertz Rent-A-Car, Admiral Car Rental and Landmark Ford, said Norm rented cars worth more than $50,000 a Kansas driver's license bearing his picture, but carrying the name of Steven Webster.
Bugg, on a motorcycle, was arrested in Kansas Bureau of Investigation agent
Lawrence, hired those cars under a false name.
Attorney, would be involved in a court case in Toneka and unable to testify.
Malone said he planned to call Welfon to testify about a statement Norman gave authorities after being arrested in Topeka for similar charges.
Norman was sentenced in connection with the Topeka case Wednesday in Shawnee County District Court. He received two concussive three to five year prison terms for illegally selling two cars he had rented in Topeka.
District Attorney Mike Malone called for a continuance of the hearing because his next witness, Jim Welsh, an assistant Shawnee County District
He was also sentenced to a three to five year term for possession of a forgery device and a one to five year term for the sale of a third illegally rented car.
Norman pleaded no contest in those charges.
Blossoms glow when radiated
By MARJORIE GRONNIGER Staff Reporter
A nuclear plant in your backyard is not a comfortable thought.
The flowers, advertised as "clusters of showy blue or purple blossoms," are supposed to show pink spots, visible at the edge of blossoms 15 to 21 days of exposure to radiation.
But for $9.55, a New York firm, C.G.C., will send customers guaranteed seeds, instant planters and full instructions for growing and using nuclear plants," whose blossoms color when exposed to radiation.
According to Ramie Arian, a partner in the company offering the plants, radiation causes the plant's cells to mutate, turning its flowers pink. When exposed to ultraviolet exposure, but it takes a week or more for the color change to appear.
Arian's advertisements claim that otherwise undetectable low-level radiation, such as the kind emitted microwave ovens, smoke alarms and the venting of krypton gas by utility workers would cause the color change.
Arian said that if a customer wanted plants to bloom year round, he would need to buy several plants and stagger planting. The plant is a member of the Spiderwort family, and blooms four or five months in the summer in the Northeast, Arian said. He said the plant grew wild across North America
He refused to divulge exactly which species the nuclear plant was a member of, saying that it was a "trade secret."
Ronald L. McGregor, state biologist and director of the State biological Survey, said he knew of only one species of amphibian in Ohlansia, that grew in both the Midwest and the East. He said he knew of none that grew throughout North America.
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