Over the past three decades, sophisticated imaging scans and sophisticated radiotherapy machines have made it possible to target individual tumors. With increasing accuracy. But the danger of Harmful or fatal side effects still exists.
Vozenin gives the example of childhood brain tumors, which can often be cured by blasting the brain with radiotherapy, but at great cost. “Survivors often suffer lifelong anxiety and depression, while radiation exposure affects brain development, leading to significant IQ loss,” she says. “We are. [sometimes] These children are treatable but expensive.
Billy Lowe, a professor of radiation oncology who runs the Flash Sciences Lab at Stanford University School of Medicine in the US, explains that tumors, especially large ones, are rarely clearly separated from the surrounding tissue. . That means it’s often impossible to avoid damaging healthy cells, so ophthalmologists are often unable to use as high a dose as they’d like, Low says.
According to Vozenin, oncologists have long believed that being able to increase radiation doses would greatly increase their ability to treat such cancer patients. For example, research has previously indicated that being able to Increase in radiation dose Tumors in lung cancer patients with brain metastases may improve survival.
In recent years, animal studies have repeatedly shown that the flash makes it possible to significantly increase the amount of radiation delivered to the body while minimizing the effects on surrounding healthy tissue. In one experiment, healthy lab rats who were given two cycles of radiation by flash. Common side effects that would be expected during the second round did not occur. In another study, animals treated with Flash for head and neck cancer experienced fewer side effects, such as decreased saliva production or difficulty swallowing.
Lowe is cautiously optimistic that, going forward, such benefits may be available to human patients. “FLASH produces less general tissue injury than conventional irradiation, without compromising anti-tumor efficacy – which could be a game-changer,” he says. An additional hope is that it may happen again. Reduce the risk of secondary cancers.Later in life as a result of radiation damage, although it is too early to know if this will happen.
Now, an increasing number of human trials are taking place around the world. Cincinnati Children’s Hospital is in Ohio, USA. Early stage trial planning In children with metastatic cancer that has spread to their chest bones. Meanwhile, ophthalmologists at Lausanne University Hospital in Switzerland are doing one. Phase 2 trial – where the details are finessed, including the maximum dose, how effective the treatment is and if there are any side effects – for patients with localized skin cancer.
But the next step in research isn’t just to test whether Flash works in people. It is also about identifying which Kind of It is best to use radiation.
Selection of particles
From carbon ions to protons and electrons, there are many ways to deliver radiotherapy, each with different applications and challenges. One of the most accurate forms of radiotherapy is hadron therapy, which is delivered with carbon ions. But there are only 14 facilities worldwide that can provide it, each at a price An estimated $150m (£122m). Currently, this therapy is delivered using conventional dosing systems, which include the delivery of radiation. Several minutes. However, with the flash protocol the ions will arrive in less than a second.
“High-energy electrons can be used to treat superficial tumors in the skin,” says André-Dante Durham-Faure, a radiation oncologist at HUG. “Photons, i.e. X-rays, or protons [a type of subatomic particle]can be used to treat deep tumors, while we reserve carbon ions and helium particles for very special cases, as only very large medical centers can offer this type of treatment. The particle accelerator required to administer carbon ion radiotherapy is the size of a building.”
