ThoseMedical innovation
How the radiation therapy of the future will spare healthy cells
A laboratory dedicated to this technique was inaugurated in Geneva. The process is to bomb a tumor in a high dose and an ultra -fast flow.
Marie-Catherine Vozenin (in G.) and Pelagia Tsoutsou co-edit a laboratory devoted to work on flash radiotherapy.
Laurent Guiraud
- The HUG and the University of Geneva inaugurate a laboratory dedicated to flash technology in radiotherapy.
- The new technique delivers ultra -rapid radiation to better spare healthy tissues.
- A partnership with CERN aims to develop more efficient accelerators.
Each year, in Switzerland, nearly 46,000 new cancer cases have been recorded. Half of them will be treated with radiotherapy. Despite major developments, it leads to significant side effects, and about a third of tumors still resist it.
To improve the quality of treatment and life of patients, the University Hospitals of Geneva (HUG) and the University of Geneva have just inaugurated a laboratory, the LiRRdevoted to the development of an application of radiotherapy, flash technology. This is a new way of administering radiation, bombing the tumor in a higher and extremely brief dose, of the order of a thousandth of a second, to kill it while sparing healthy fabrics.
Ancient radiotherapy technique to optimize
Radiation therapy has been used since the start of the XXe century against cancers. The bombed cells of rays absorb irradiation – bundles of protons, electrons, or even X -rays -, which damages them that they die or no longer manage to reproduce. Today, this technique is used in the treatment of in two cancer, often in addition to surgery.
Effective, it nevertheless leads to side effects, between inflammation of healthy tissues, lesions, even pain. “Technological evolution, in particular the development of imaging, has made it possible to better target and guide the influence on the tumor,” explains the Pre Pelagia Tsoutsou, head of the HUG radio-oncology service, which co-edit the innovation laboratory in radibiology applied to radio-oncology (LIRR) with the pre Marie-Catherine Vozegnin. “But that is not yet enough to avoid all damage on healthy cells.” In addition, some tumors are more or less radiosensible and would need higher dosage.
This is where the potential of flash technology comes in. Fifteen years ago, Marie-Catherine Vozegnin and her colleague Vincent Favaudon discovered that the same dose of rays delivered to a higher speed did not induce fibrosis-lesion scar-on healthy mouse cells, unlike cancer cells. “It is the first time that such a differential effect has been shown,” emphasizes the researcher. We cannot yet explain it completely, but it seems that the healthy fabric does not absorb the radiation delivered quickly, unlike the tumor. ”
Collaboration with CERN
This flash effect, with a radiation issued in a few hundred milliseconds instead of a few minutes as is the case with current radiotherapy, would therefore make it possible to expose tumors with higher doses while sparing surrounding healthy tissues.
What also allow to tackle tumors housed in very sensitive areas, such as the brain, and a third of radio tumors. “This treatment also has a very interesting cost-benefit profile,” adds the specialist. An accelerator of particles costs around 5 million francs and lasts ten to fifteen years. With this machine, we could treat 40 to 50 patients per day. ”
The conditional is still in order because, to achieve these objectives, it is necessary to design more efficient machines – current devices allow only surface cancers to be treated. “They are under development, in collaboration with the CERNamong others, reports Pelagia Tsoutsou. Accelerators are needed with extremely large power, with a volume suitable for a hospital room. ”
Waiting for clinical trials at HUG
It is also necessary to demonstrate in humans the differential effect between tumor cells and healthy – it has already been in fish, mouse and pig. “Clinical trials have not yet started,” confirm the researchers. The time of research is that of prudence. We hope an application in humans within ten years. ”
Today, nearly 1,500 researchers are working on this promising optimization. Swiss pioneer in the field, the Chun the concl a accord With CERN and the company Theryq in 2022 to develop an accelerator capable of producing a high dose of electrons. For two years, research has now continued in the city of Calvin.
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