Cancer patients may one day be able to get an entire course of radiation therapy in less than a second instead of undergoing treatment over the course of several weeks. Researchers at the University of Pennsylvania have taken the first steps to make this a reality.
In a new relationship published today in the International Journal of Radiation Oncology, Biology and Physics, the Penn team details the use of proton radiation to generate the dosage necessary to theoretically give a cancer patient the entire course of radiation therapy in one rapid treatment.
It is an experimental paradigm known as Flash radiation therapy, and could represent a radical change for the world of oncology in the future. In this study, the researchers also found that Flash radiation therapy has the same effect on tumors as traditional photon radiation. In addition, it saves healthy tissues thanks to the shorter exposure time.
“It's the first time anyone has published results demonstrating the feasibility of using protons and not electrons”, the study's senior author said James M. Metz.
Metz noted that other research teams have generated similar doses using electrons, which do not penetrate deep enough into the body to be clinically useful as a cancer treatment for internal cancers.
Other groups have tried the conventional photon approach, but currently available treatment devices lack the ability to generate the necessary dosage.
This study shows that, with technical modifications, the accelerators currently available for protons can obtain Flash doses with the current biological effects.
Flash radiation therapy, the stages of development
The key for the Penn team was the ability to generate the dose with protons. Even there, researchers had to specially develop the tools necessary to effectively and accurately measure radiation doses, because standard detectors were quickly saturated due to high radiation levels. It is thanks to the Roberts Proton Therapy Center, which includes a dedicated research room to perform experiments like these, that it was possible to trial Flash radiotherapy.
“We have been able to develop specialized systems in the research room to generate Flash doses. An activity that we simply could not carry out with a more traditional research configuration"he said Metz.
The researchers said they are already starting to optimize how Flash radiotherapy will be used. First for clinical studies, and then to translate the skill from the research room into a clinical space.
The definitive step? Designing the Flash radiation therapy system for hospitals.
