3DCRT

Turns out I'm having "three-dimensional conformal radiation therapy." Sounds like something they'd do on Star Trek. "Scotty! I need you to emit a three-dimensional conformal x-ray beam from the main deflector dish!" And Scotty wails "Ach! Me bairns!"

The whole point of conformal radiation therapy is that a computer builds a model of the tumor, which is then used to steer the beam so that the radiation primarily impacts the tumor and not normal tissue ("conformal" means, I guess, that the pattern of radiation exposure "conforms" to the contours of the tumor). This allows the doctors to increase the intensity of the radiation, inflicting maximum harm on the tumor while sparing the neighboring tissue from undue harm.

While I'm on the subject of Star Trek... I really did enjoy the new Star Trek movie - it was amusing and entertaining and, in most respects, a faithful homage to the original. But did they really have to destroy Vulcan and spawn another damn alternate timeline? Those things are the bane of Star Trek - you need a wall chart and a ground spotter to keep the timelines straight. And why Vulcan? Was it destroyed just for sheer goshwowness? Couldn't they have written the story in such a way that they didn't destroy such a fundamental part of the Star Trek universe?

And why, while I'm at it, does Spock's little whirligig spaceship leave an actual damn exhaust plume? The fastest ship known to 23rd Century Vulcan science leaves smoke trails? I don't think so. Hell, we've known since about 1965 that smoke trails are a serious liability in air combat (and, presumably by extension, space combat). The North Vietnamese almost didn't need radar at all to track US F-4 Phantoms; all they had to do was keep an eye on the sky and look for the characteristic black smoke trail from our J-79 engines. Elimination of smoke trails from missiles and jet engines wasn't the only goal of subsequent work, but it was a goal.

But don't get me wrong, I did like the movie. I just think that the annihilation of Vulcan is a symptom of the same tendency toward self-one-upmanship that afflicts later seasons of Lost. I eventually had to give up on Lost for that very reason. Well, that and the fact that it started out mysterious and kind of eerie, but then turned incomprehensible and, if you ask me, kind of irritating.

But anyway. The point was three-dimensional conformal radiation therapy. I calculated yesterday that a 45 Gray dose of X-rays is equivalent in terms of energy to dropping a ten-pound cannonball from a height of 39 inches. That should get the job done - I hope.