How did this profession come about?

Even 70–80 years ago it was very difficult to cure a disease like cancer. First of all, because a malignant tumor was very difficult to detect before it grew and became deadly. And having established a tumor, it could be eliminated most often only with the help of a serious surgical operation. But then tiny, but extremely powerful particles that make up all matter in the universe - atoms - came to the aid of the doctors.

In the second half of the XX century, atomic energy began to be used for peaceful purposes - with the help of it they began to produce electricity, as well as to detect and treat diseases with high accuracy and minimal harm to the patient.

What do medical physicists do?

Proton therapy

With the help of the energy of elementary particles - protons - medical physicists, together with doctors, remove malignant tumors with the highest accuracy and practically without harm to the body.

Tumor detection

You know that you can study the internal organs of a person in different ways. There is ultrasound (ultrasound), MRI (magnetic resonance imaging) and CT (computed tomography). But they only give a general and often not very accurate picture. But thanks to PET (positron emission tomography), which is carried out by medical physicists, doctors can see a tumor inside a person at the level of not just cells, but atoms, which are several times smaller. And have time to find her when she is still very, very small! And most importantly, PET can detect tiny and very dangerous "pieces" of a tumor - metastases - anywhere in the human body.

Medical equipment

Medical physicists are also engaged in setting up the most complex medical devices, preparing equipment for treatment, and monitoring its serviceability. And they are also responsible for safety, because radioactive treatment carries a high risk of radiation harmful to the body.

How do medical physicists treat people?

Proton accelerators

Proton accelerators can destroy tumors (they are also called neoplasms) with the highest accuracy. These sophisticated devices accelerate protons to tremendous speed and create beams of these particles, which, with the help of acceleration, generate powerful energy and act like an invisible surgical knife cutting out a tumor.

How is such a high precision of treatment obtained? The particle beam travels the distance to the tumor at a tremendous speed and therefore does not destroy the healthy tissues surrounding the tumor. And at the tumor itself, the beam slows down and destroys only malignant cells. Proton therapy only lasts a few minutes and does not cause any pain.

Swivel chair

But medical physicists have come up with another interesting thing to reduce the harm to the body from radiation - while undergoing proton therapy, the patient sits in a rotating chair. And it turns out that the dangerous "extra" rays, as it were, are scattered over the human body and, thus, cause minimal damage. And the main beam of energy hits exactly the target - a dangerous tumor.

Individual mask

For the treatment to be successful and the proton beam hitting the target, it is necessary to clearly fix the position of the patient's body. To do this, an impression is taken from the patient's face and a special mask is made on it, in which the head cannot move by more than tenths of a millimeter.