The Cutting Edge: Computing / Technology / Innovation : PLOWSHARES : Star Wars Technology, in Defense of Health
President Ronald Reagan once envisioned the day when powerful energy beams could protect the United States from enemy nuclear missiles, a concept that became known as the Star Wars defense system.
The notion of energy beam weapons has faded into obscurity, but a portion of the technology has been harnessed for a different purpose: treating cancer with revolutionary proton beam radiation.
Electus Technology in San Bernardino has developed an accelerator that creates a beam of protons that can be aimed far more accurately at cancer tissue than current electron or photon beam radiation or the older cobalt radiation.
Electus, founded by former TRW engineer Jon W. Slater, built a proton beam accelerator at Loma Linda Medical Research Center and is building conventional accelerators at other hospitals.
About 90% of the company’s 42 employees came out of the defense industry, said Slater, sole owner of the company. The former defense workers are crucial not for their knowledge of specific defense technology, but for their background in systems engineering for complex machines, he said.
“There are people looking for work in Los Angeles with incredible skills,” he said.
Slater’s proton machine consists of three accelerators that impart energy to a stream of hydrogen nuclei, each of which consists of a single proton. The intermediate accelerator, known as a radio frequency quadropol, uses what was once a candidate technology for Star Wars. Another of the three accelerators, one that plays a crucial role, is known as a synchrotron and was developed at the federal government’s Fermi Laboratory.
Unlike conventional radiation, proton beams can penetrate a precise depth of body tissue and impart energy directly onto a tumor. Older radiation methods penetrate less deeply and radiate significantly more healthy tissue.
Side effects such as nausea, hair loss and diarrhea are less severe with proton therapy. The downside is that the machines cost $40 million to $80 million each. So far, Slater said, he has sold only one but has several prospects.
