FDA approves new radiation treatment for cancer tumors

LIVERMORE, Calif. - Scientists at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory are using nuclear weapons technology to help doctors do a better job of targeting cancer with radiation treatment.

The system, approved by federal regulators last month, was formally announced Friday by Energy Secretary Bill Richardson.

''This is a red-letter day for the treatment of cancer worldwide,'' said Richardson, speaking at a news conference at the Sewickley, Penn., headquarters of Livermore business partner NOMOS Corp.

The treatment, known as Peregrine, is a computer-based system for calculating in three dimensions where radiation goes in the body and how much of it is striking tissue, bone or cavities. It is tailored to individuals, using information gathered from CAT scans.

That means doctors can get right at the tumor, allowing them to beam higher doses of radiation at cancerous tissue without increasing damage to surrounding healthy tissue.

''It breaks the radiation into thousands of pencil beams. Similar to an inkjet printer, you're able to paint the radiation dose on to the tumor,'' said Dr. Jeffrey Wong, chair of the division of radiation oncology at City of Hope Cancer Center Los Angeles.

Doctors hope to start using Peregrine within six months, Wong said.

Livermore is managed by the University of California for the Energy Department. Primarily a nuclear weapons design lab, its post-Cold War function has been to maintain the safety of the nuclear stockpile using computer simulation and other methods and to look for civilian applications for its technology.

The Peregrine program stems from weapons research on how radiation interacts with various material, a field known as radiation transport.

The program's been something of a personal quest for Livermore principal researcher Christine Hartmann Siantar, who lost seven relatives to cancer in about two years.

''Peregrine will touch lives,'' she said.

On the Net:

http://www.llnl.gov/peregrine

http://www.nomos.com