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Asked by becci646 to Paul on 7 Mar 2016.
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Paul O'Mahoney answered on 7 Mar 2016:
Light can be used in lots of different ways. We can use light to activate drugs in the body to kill tumours (using a technique called photodynamic therapy), or we can use high powered lasers to kill or cut out cancers. Light can also be used for diagnosis, like taking pictures of the retina in your eye (you sometimes get this at the opticians) or by using fluorescent dyes that attach to tumour cells (it looks like you’ve drawn on the person with a highlighter!).
Light is a really useful tool for using in medicine, and I am sure there are plenty more way we can use it that we haven’t even thought of yet!
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Comments
Jen commented on :
In radiotherapy we use lasers to position the patients accurately on the treatment couch. There are lasers projected in the 3 orthogonal planes and where they all intersect marks the isocentre of the linear accelerator which is the centre of the treatment field about which the machine rotates. When the patient is in position the laser lines lines up with marks on the patient showing they are in the correct position.
Other uses are UV (ultraviolet) treatments for skin conditions, lasers to cut tissue in surgery, laser eye surgery to correct short sightedness, blue light is used to treat new babies with jaundice. They are lots more uses that I haven’t even thought of. In Clinical Science it is called ‘non-ionising radiation’ and we still have safety experts who make sure lasers (and other light sources) are used safely in hospitals.