Targeted method improves treatment of brain cancers
Researchers in the US have developed a way of delivering nanoparticle radiation directly to a brain tumour and retaining it at the site.
Current radiotherapy treatments target beams of radiation to the tumour site, which pass through healthy tissue also. Patients receiving treatment can only tolerate small amounts before developing serious side effects.
The method, developed at the University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio, doses the tumour with much higher levels of radiation — 20 to 30 times the current dose of radiation therapy to patients — but is said to spare a much greater area of brain tissue.
The study, published in the journal Neuro-Oncology, has been successful enough in laboratory experiments for the team to prepare a clinical trial at the Cancer Therapy & Research Center (CTRC), according to Andrew Brenner, MD, PhD, the study’s corresponding author and a neuro-oncologist at the CTRC who will lead the clinical trial.
‘We saw that we could deliver much higher doses of radiation in animal models,’ said Brenner. ‘We were able to give it safely and we were able to completely eradicate tumours.’
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