HEALTH: Researchers recently developed a new radiation therapy for cancer patients that does not have harmful side effects.
By Aysouda Malekzadeh, News Editor
According to the Centers of Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), approximately 500,000 lives are lost to cancer every year in the United States. Though current treatments can be effective when the cancer is caught in its early stages, the side effects of these drugs and treatments, such as chemotherapy, are numerous and painful.
A new study headed by Professor M. Fredrick Hawthorne from the University of Missouri Curators (MC) successfully used a new radiation therapy on cancer-ridden mice. The radiation therapy put the cancer into remission without causing any harmful side effects.
Cancer cells tend to grow a lot faster than normal cells do, thus absorbing more of the surrounding materials. Based on this knowledge, Hawthorne, who received the National Medal of Science awarded by President Obama in February 2013, created a boron chemical that could be absorbed by the cancer cells in the body. When the boron-infused cancer cells were exposed to neutrons, a subatomic particle, the boron atom shattered and selectively tore apart the cancer cells, sparing the neighboring healthy cells.
“Since the 1930s, scientists have sought success with a cancer treatment known as boron neutron capture therapy (BNCT),” Hawthorne said. “Our team at MU’s International Institute of Nano and Molecular Medicine finally found the way to make BNCT work by taking advantage of a cancer cell’s biology with nanochemistry.”
The physical properties of boron allowed Hawthorne’s technique to work. A particular form of boron will split when it captures a neutron and will release energy, lithium and helium. The lithium and helium atoms penetrate the cancer cell and destroy it from the inside without harming the surrounding cells.
“A wide variety of cancers can be attacked with our BNCT technique,” Hawthorne said. “The technique worked excellently in mice. We are ready to move on to trials in larger animals, then people. However, before we can start treating humans, we will need to build suitable equipment and facilities. When it is built, MU will have the first radiation therapy of this kind in the world.”
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