Radioactive material implanted inside the tumor to eliminate pancreatic cancer

Researchers at Duke University in the US have found the most effective treatment against pancreatic cancer in lab mice to date.

The results of the research were published in the journal Nature Biomedical Engineering this October, and EurekAlert wrote about them.

Pancreatic cancer cells are difficult to treat, so stopping cancer growth in mice is a huge success.

The new treatment removes about 80% of all types of cancer cells growing in laboratory mice, including hard ones.

Semi-gel injection

The new approach is based on the use of chemotherapy in addition to radiotherapy, but this time by delivering radiotherapy by injecting a gel-like substance containing the radioactive isotope iodine-131 into the cancerous tumor, thus avoiding Exposing the body to an external radiation source that has to penetrate healthy cells and cause damage to them before reaching the cancerous cells.

The researchers tested their new treatment on pancreatic cancer cells known to be difficult to treat, hoping that injecting radioactive material into the cancerous tumor with chemotherapy to eliminate it.

Testing of this approach in preclinical models is still in its early stages, and it is not expected to be used to treat humans anytime soon.

According to the researchers, the next step aims to test this technique on a large number of laboratory animals, and prove the possibility of using it with the help of well-known clinical tools and endoscopy tools that doctors may be trained to use.

The researchers then aspire to start the first phase of clinical trials in humans.

Study co-author Jeff Schall says that after diving deep into more than 1,100 treatments for pancreatic cancer in test animals, they haven't found any that completely remove the tumor.

He adds that when we find that the published research says that what we see in our research does not exist, we should know that we are now facing something interesting.

The new technique is based on a combination of traditional chemotherapy, which keeps cancer cells in the phase in which they are susceptible to radiation, with shining a source of radiation on them.

This technique will not be effective unless the radiation exceeds a certain threshold in the cancer cells.

Despite the great development that has taken place in shaping and directing radiotherapy, it is difficult to deliver radiation adequately without side effects affecting healthy cells.

Titanium

Scientists have tried a new way to deliver radiation to cells by implanting a titanium-coated radioactive substance directly inside the tumor, but because titanium blocks the passage of all radiation except for gamma rays that travel far outside the tumor, it remains for a short time that is not enough to defeat the neighboring cancer cells.

To avoid such an obstacle, Dr. Schaal has experimented with similar methods of intra-tumour radiology, this time using elastin-like polypeptides (ELPs), which are made up of a group of amino acids linked together to form a substance. Semi-gel designed to function as a delivery system with specifications appropriate to the duty you are going to perform.

ELBS is a liquid when kept at room temperature, but turns into a gel when it enters a warmer object.

When the cancerous mass is injected with the radioactive material, the ELBS will encapsulate it.

This time, the researchers used the radioactive isotope iodine-131, which is widely used by doctors in radiotherapy for a long time, and its biological efficacy is well understood.

The radioactive iodine isotope emits beta radiation, which penetrates the gel material to release its energy to the surrounding cancer cells without causing damage to healthy human cells.

Over time, ELBS begins to decompose and return to its original components, but not before the radioactive iodine is completely converted into xenon, which is considered to be harmless to the body.

In addition to these rays, mice infected with the drug "Paclitaxel", which is used in the treatment of several types of cancer, were treated.

The researchers tested the treatment on cancer cells that grew under the skin of mice as a result of multiple genetic mutations, and they also tested it on cancerous tumors that grew inside the pancreas, which makes them more difficult to treat.

As a result, the new treatment achieved a complete response in all the models that were tried to treat it with complete removal of the tumor in most cases, and this treatment did not show any side effects at the time that followed, except what was caused by chemotherapy.