GPUs Now a Tool for Accelerating Cancer Research
GPUs are predicting the action of cancer inside the body.
As many of us know, cancer is currently treated with a highly potent beam of radiation. This works very well to kill the cancer cells and hopefully destroy the tumor, but radiation does not discriminate; it kills all cells in its path – cancer or otherwise.
Doctors avoid the healthy cells by taking accurate MRI scans. The problem with these 3-D models is that most are out of date – sometimes by months. Inaccuracies in the scans lead to questions such as: How large has the tumor grown? Has the tumor recessed somewhere else? The answers to these questions are critical when high power beams of radiation are being directed into a patient. An updated MRI scan every day is quite inconvenient for most patients, making that solution unfeasible and too expensive.
With more and more developers and enterprises utilizing parallel computing to run their supercomputers, more are using clusters of Nvidia GPUs, or to be more specific, Tesla GPUs. Tesla GPUs have been seen in clusters driving the most powerful supercomputers and allowing future moon craft to act more intelligently. This innovation in the use of Tesla GPUs may be transferred further into the medical field and may even be used to diagnose and treat cancer.
Many of the above questions can be answered by using Nvidia Tesla accelerated computers. These computers will have the capability, with extreme computing performance, to predict the movement and change of the patient’s tumor. All this can be done with one outdated MRI. This technology, called ART (Adaptive Radiotherapy), will be used to more accurately focus treatment on the tumor and not live flesh.
Read more at the NYT.
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zankuto those of you that bought triple GTX 680s on launch day... how bout giving a little back into the world?Reply -
dameon51 If we never had PC games, we may of never had GPU's. PC games have pushed technology in so many directions.Reply -
gtx 680 locks up most its cuda cores, 580 is just as good. now all of u get out there and start folding and crunching. BTW toms hardware, your username password system is a joke. cant get a new confirmation email and cant log in with my original account cause it wasnt activated within 48 hours. now it sends me in a neverending circle of FU'sReply
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joytech22 zankutothose of you that bought triple GTX 680s on launch day... how bout giving a little back into the world?Reply
Apparently compute performance with those cards is less than the last two generations..
Nvidia also cut back on compute performance with the 6-Series so there was a bigger difference between Gamer GPU's and workstation GPU's.
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s997863 GPUs've also long been tools to accelerate bad backs, eye strain, less fitness ...Reply
Wonder if the tradeoff is worth it? -
alidan i believe that current cancer and aids research should be put to an end.Reply
call me cynical, but i dont believe that they will ever be researching a true cure, because its to proffitable to sell a treatment.
i believe that all funds that go tward cancer and such, should instead be put tward mechanical organs (so you can replace anything without transplant rejection being a key risk) which can out right replace standard organs, and if not that, at least buy more time for a true transplant.
and a second field, nanotech reaserch... because this isnt going to be a treatment, but an out right fix, the more funding this gets, the sooner we may have a doctor say "you have stage 4 cancer, its amazing that its been missed so far, lets give you an injection and you should be good as new" or an aids patient mat get the injection and it would remove the virus, possibly replacing the immune system with nanotech.
the sooner such research takes place, the sooner we may be able to save people who would today be dead men walking. -
bison88 zankutothose of you that bought triple GTX 680s on launch day... how bout giving a little back into the world?Reply
Honestly, I built my PC with the intention to game. I'm glad distributed programs like Folding@Home are made possible allowing me to get my bang for the buck 24/7 out of my card whether gaming or helping science. I'm just lucky power is cheaper than elsewhere in the states where I live. If stuff like that helps further humanity and science then I'm all for it. -
nekromobo zankutothose of you that bought triple GTX 680s on launch day... how bout giving a little back into the world?Reply
One 7970 is giving more back than triple GTX680's in this matter.. -
tomfreak alidani believe that current cancer and aids research should be put to an end.call me cynical, but i dont believe that they will ever be researching a true cure, because its to proffitable to sell a treatment.i believe that all funds that go tward cancer and such, should instead be put tward mechanical organs (so you can replace anything without transplant rejection being a key risk) which can out right replace standard organs, mechanical organs? no way, the funds should have put into research on producing healthier food, lesser pollution. There is far less fund going this area than treatment alone. Cancer prevention is the first area to attack, but the reality is scientist dont do this. The stupid world we are living now is like this.Reply
1. Eat chemical preservative food since they are cheaper to produce, make more money for food industry.
2. Since we eat shit food, we get sick, go into Hospital for treatment where they can rip us off with all kinds of treatment they have. Hey we got to eat drugs too!
3. 1 + 2 double the profit = capitalism.