Film densitometry in radiodiagnosis and radiotherapy

In the future, attention will be directed to less invasive cancer therapies that are compatible with long survival periods. Although eradication of the disease is desired , this will not be the main goal of the applied treatment . Cancers will be detected early, with stabilization of the disease development becoming a prime objective, as is currently done for chronic diseases such as diabetes. The roles of surgery and radiation therapy will depend on the type and stage of the cancer and on the drugs that are presently under research. This work presents the experimental results obtained with a film densitometer developed by MULTIDATA Systems (USA), that was used to determine the blackening density of radiographic films, thus obtaining different information regarding the radiation fields and medical radiographs used for the experiments. This method requires further investigation in order to differentiate malignant from benign tumors only by comparing the blackening density recorded in medical films, removing the need to perform biopsies - the current method that often has adverse effects on the patients.