Scope of nanotechnology-based radiation therapy and thermotherapy methods in cancer treatment (original) (raw)
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Nanotechnology in radiation oncology
Journal of clinical oncology : official journal of the American Society of Clinical Oncology, 2014
Nanotechnology, the manipulation of matter on atomic and molecular scales, is a relatively new branch of science. It has already made a significant impact on clinical medicine, especially in oncology. Nanomaterial has several characteristics that are ideal for oncology applications, including preferential accumulation in tumors, low distribution in normal tissues, biodistribution, pharmacokinetics, and clearance, that differ from those of small molecules. Because these properties are also well suited for applications in radiation oncology, nanomaterials have been used in many different areas of radiation oncology for imaging and treatment planning, as well as for radiosensitization to improve the therapeutic ratio. In this article, we review the unique properties of nanomaterials that are favorable for oncology applications and examine the various applications of nanotechnology in radiation oncology. We also discuss the future directions of nanotechnology within the context of radia...
Nanoparticles in radiation oncology: From bench-side to bedside
Cancer letters, 2016
Nanoparticles (NP) are "in vogue" in medical research. Pre-clinical studies accumulate evidence of NP enhancing radiation therapy. On one hand, NP, selected for their intrinsic physicochemical characteristics, are radio-sensitizers. Thus, when NP accumulate in cancer cells, they increase the radiation absorption coefficient specifically in tumour tissue, sparing healthy surrounding tissue from toxicity. On the other hand, NP, by being drug vectors, can carry radio-sensitizer therapeutics to cancer cells. Finally, NP present theranostic effects. Indeed they are used in imaging as contrast agents. NP therefore can be multi-tasking and have promising prospect in radiotherapy field. In spite of the numerous encouraging preclinical evidence, the very small number of clinical trials investigating NP possible involvement in the radiotherapy clinical practice suggests a physicians' unwillingness. Many prerequisites seem necessary including define biological mechanisms of NP ra...
International Journal of Radiation Oncology*Biology*Physics, 2019
The limiting factor in radiotherapy is the radiation dose to health tissue. Recently, an innovative technique is investigated which would help maximize the radiation effects to the tumour and limit the damage to healthy tissue. These techniques, which are still in research mode, are based on radio-sensitising the targets with nano-materials. Ultimately our objective is to either enable a higher dose to the tumour whilst maintain the current level of side effects or alternatively maintain or even reduce the current tumour dose but with significantly reduced side effects. Materials/Methods: Metallic nanoparticles have been proven to be radiosensitisers for the ionising radiations but only in the low energy (KV range) of energy where the photoelectric effect dominates. This represents the main limitation for potential application of such nanoparticles in radiotherapy which is delivered by high energy beam (MVs) beams dominated by Compton interactions. It has also been shown that metallic nanoparticles can fluoresce under exposure to the ionising radiations such as x-rays. Therefore, this research aims at utilising this florescence property to harvest the generated photons and allow them to expose a conjugated photodynamic therapy agent such as photophrin and hence lead to generation of reactive oxygen species which are highly effective in cell killing. Hence the combination of enhancement in generation of reactive oxygen species with extra secondary electrons leads to more efficient cell killing. This new nano-comopund is composed of Iridium and conjugated with photophrin and a chemotherapeutic agent. Initially in vitro studies comparing cell death caused by a given radiation dose compared against the same dose plus the nano-compound. Further work investigating other compounds in vitro aiming to specifically target just tumor. Results: Our preliminary in-vitro results have shown a significant dose enhancement of up to 20%. Further investigations are currently under way to quantify the levels of dose enhancement caused by such compound nanoparticles. Conclusion: If the 20% dose enhancement is proven in subsequent results this would lead to a significant improvement in our ability to treat cancers either by dose escalation or alternatively maintaining the current dose rather reducing side effects.
2020
We have recently reported the synthesis and characterization of gold-coated iron oxide nanoparticle and demonstrated such a nanoparticle (Au@Fe2O3 NP) was able to significantly enhance the lethal effects of photo-thermo-radiotherapy. The purpose of this study was to determine the mechanisms behind such an enhancement by investigating the changes induced in cancer cell viability, proliferation, and morphology as well as monitoring the alteration of some genes which play important role in the process of cell death. Using MTT assay and transmission electron microscopy (TEM), the KB cells viability and morphology were assessed after treating with various combinations of NPs, photothermal therapy (PTT), and radiotherapy (RT). Clonogenic assay was used to assess the proliferation ability of treated KB cells. Nanoparticle internalization into the cells was investigated by TEM and inductively coupled plasma (ICP). During the treatment procedures, temperature changes were monitored using an ...
Radiotherapy by Neutron-Irradiated Nanoparticles
In this paper, the author explores, theoretically, an important future application of nanomaterials in conjunction with radiation effects, particularly the potential use of nanoparticles in radiotherapy. He introduces a strategy for the use nanoparticles of some elements like Au, Ir, Pt, Sm, Cd, and Eu in radiotherapy. These nanoparticles are essentially nontoxic, and each has very large cross section for neutron capture. The proposed strategy depends on using the well-known neutron activation technique (NA). NA is the production of radioactive isotopes by absorption of neutrons. After injecting Nanoparticles of one of the above mentioned materials inside the target tissue, it exposed to a neutron beam. The nanoparticles become radioactive. Radiation emitted is alpha, proton, and beta particles, and gamma photons. The presence of these particles is very important where a large amount of its energy is deposited inside the target tissue, that makes the radiation effect and hence the r...
Targeted nanoparticles for tumour radiotherapy enhancement-the long dawn of a golden era?
Annals of translational medicine, 2016
Despite considerable progress in (I) our understanding of the aetiopathology of head and neck cancer and (II) the precise delivery of radiotherapy, long-term survival rates for many patients with head and neck cancer remain disappointingly low. Over the past years, gold nanoparticles (NP) have emerged as promising radiation dose enhancers. In a recent study published in Nanoscale, Popovtzer et al. have used gold NP coated with an antibody against the epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) in an attempt to enhance radiation-induced tumour cell killing in a head and neck cancer xenograft model. They report a significant impact of the combined treatment with radiation and gold NP on tumour growth and suggest an involvement of apoptosis, inhibition of angiogenesis and diminished tissue repair. In this perspective, we illustrate the underlying radiobiophysical concepts and discuss some of the challenges associated with this and related nanoparticle-radiotherapy studies from a physics, c...
Nanoparticle Systems for Cancer Phototherapy: An Overview
Nanomaterials, 2021
Photodynamic therapy (PDT) and photothermal therapy (PTT) are photo-mediated treatments with different mechanisms of action that can be addressed for cancer treatment. Both phototherapies are highly successful and barely or non-invasive types of treatment that have gained attention in the past few years. The death of cancer cells because of the application of these therapies is caused by the formation of reactive oxygen species, that leads to oxidative stress for the case of photodynamic therapy and the generation of heat for the case of photothermal therapies. The advancement of nanotechnology allowed significant benefit to these therapies using nanoparticles, allowing both tuning of the process and an increase of effectiveness. The encapsulation of drugs, development of the most different organic and inorganic nanoparticles as well as the possibility of surfaces’ functionalization are some strategies used to combine phototherapy and nanotechnology, with the aim of an effective tre...
Nanoparticle enhanced radiotherapy
2019
Nanoparticles have been shown to create a localised increase in dose deposition when combined with ionising radiation. Although this has been shown in the literature, there are several factors that can alter the level of enhancement, which need to be investigated before translating the use of nanoparticles for clinical treatments. This thesis aims to investigate three different aspects of this effect: (i) effect of nanoparticles when combined with proton therapy, (ii) study the combined effect of nanoparticle material, size and beam energy with photon irradiation, (iii) consider the biological impact with different cell lines, nanoparticle parameters and radiation types. To consider the effect of nanoparticles with protons, Monte Carlo simulations were developed to model the effects of nanoparticle concentrations. The use of nanoparticles at clinically relevant concentrations was shown to cause an effect on the Bragg peak, where changes were quantified in the model and validated exp...