Tech
The ultra-fast cancer treatments which could replace conventional radiotherapy
A pioneering new treatment promises to tackle a wider range of cancers, with fewer side-effects than conventional radiotherapy. It also takes less than a second.
In a series of vast underground caverns on the outskirts of Geneva, Switzerland, experiments are taking place which may one day lead to new generation of radiotherapy machines. The hope is that these devices could make it possible to cure complex brain tumours, eliminate cancers that have metastasised to distant organs, and generally limit the toll which cancer treatment exerts on the human body.
The home of these experiments is the European Laboratory for Particle Physics (Cern), best known to the world as the particle physics hub that developed the Large Hadron Collider, a 27 kilometre (16.7 mile)-long ring of superconducting magnets capable of accelerating particles to near the speed of light.
Arguably Cern’s crowning achievement was the 2012 discovery of the Higgs boson, the so-called “God Particle” which gives other particles their mass and in doing so lays the foundation for everything that exists in the universe. But in recent years, the centre’s unique expertise in accelerating high-energy particles has found a new niche – the world of cancer radiotherapy.
Eleven years ago, Marie-Catherine Vozenin, a radiobiologist now working at Geneva University Hospitals (Hug), and others published a paper outlining a paradigm-shifting approach to traditional radiotherapy treatment which they called Flash. By delivering radiation at ultra-high dose rates, with exposures of less than a second, they showed that it was possible to destroy tumours in rodents while sparing healthy tissue.
Its impact was immediate. International experts described it as a seminal breakthrough, and it galvanised fellow radiobiologists around the world to conduct their own experiments using the Flash approach to treat a wide variety of tumours in rodents, household pets, and now humans.
The Flash concept resonated as it addressed some of the long-standing limitations of radiotherapy, one of the most common cancer therapies, which two-thirds of all cancer patients will receive at some point in their treatment journey. Typically delivered through administering a beam of X-rays or other particles over the course of two to five minutes, the total dose is usually spread across dozens of individual treatment sessions over up to eight weeks, to make it more tolerable for the patient.
TikTok is still three days away from a likely ban in the United States, but many users are already bidding the app farewell and seeking out alternatives.
Influencer Jasmine Chiswell posted a video Tuesday, showing her frowning over text that reads: “Me saying goodbye to 18 million best friends because TikTok is getting banned,” with sad face and broken heart emojis.
The fear of a ban amped up following a report late Tuesday from The Information that TikTok will shut itself down entirely for US users come Sunday, if it doesn’t win its challenge to the Supreme Court or find an American owner by then. Before the report, many people had expected US app stores to remove TikTok but that existing users could continue accessing the app on their phones, at least for a while.
Gaming giant Nintendo revealed its newest console Thursday in a highly anticipated announcement gamers had been waiting for since rumors of its release first spread years ago.
The Nintendo Switch 2, the successor to the Nintendo Switch system, will be released in 2025, the company said.
In a new promotional video, Nintendo showcases a larger version of the Switch that looks similar to its predecessor. The video also shows the system’s controllers, or Joy-Cons, now attach to the side of the main unit rather than slide in.
The Nintendo Switch 2 will play Switch 2 exclusive games, as well as both physical and digital Nintendo Switch games. Some Nintendo Switch games may not be supported on or fully compatible with Nintendo Switch 2, the company said.
The announcement did not provide many details on the console or a specific release date. The company claims more information about the system will be available during the company’s April Nintendo Direct event. The Kyoto-based game developer said it will also host “Nintendo Switch 2 Experience” events in several countries, where players can get a hands-on experience with the new system.
Those events are planned for cities such as Los Angeles, New York, London and Paris beginning in April. Ticket registration for those events begins Friday, Nintendo said.
Instagram has rolled out a number of updates in recent days that appear to be aimed at attracting TikTok users while the short-video app’s future remains in limbo. And on Sunday, Instagram parent company Meta went one step further and announced the launch of a new video creation app on Sunday called Edits, which bears an uncanny resemblance to CapCut, the app owned by TikTok parent company ByteDance that many creators use to make TikTok videos.
Adam Mosseri, head of Instagram, said on Friday that Instagram’s profile photo grids will now display images as rectangles, rather than the app’s signature squares — a layout that’s notably similar to how profile pages look on TikTok.
On Saturday, Mosseri said Instagram will increase the maximum length for Reels videos from 90 seconds to three minutes — following the lead of TikTok, which began pushing users to post longer videos in 2023.
“We’ve historically only allowed reels up to 90 seconds given our focus on short-form video, but we’ve heard the feedback that this is just too short for those who want to share longer stories,” Mosseri said Saturday in an Instagram post.
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