Breakthrough in development of a new highly accurate radiotherapy treatment for cancer

AN important breakthrough in the development of a new and highly accurate #radiotherapy treatment for cancer has been achieved.

The new treatment, called FLASH RT, is as effective as current techniques but could also prevent unnecessary damage to healthy tissue and considerably shorten the time that patients spend in hospital.

Scientists at the National Physical Laboratory (NPL) , including IPEM Fellow Russell Thomas, Science Area Leader of Medical Radiation Science, used a pioneering measurement technology to measure and standardise the absorbed dose for a potentially revolutionary form of proton beam radiotherapy known as FLASH.

Ultra-high dose rate radiation

The FLASH RT technique uses short pulses of ultra-high dose rate (UHDR) radiation to treat cancer. Currently, any form of radiotherapy results in some undesirable and unavoidable deposition of radiation to healthy tissues around the targeted tumour. Studies have suggested that treatment using UHDR radiation exposures could significantly spare healthy tissue whilst being at least as effective as treatments at conventional dose rates in controlling the tumour. This has been named ‘the FLASH effect’. 

Standardised dose measurements

Mr Thomas said: ‘In 2003, an exploratory project collaborating with Dr Andrzej Kacperek and his team at The National Centre for Eye Proton Therapy at the Clatterbridge Cancer Centre, examined how NPL might support improvements in dosimetry for Proton Radiotherapy. That initial discussion grew into a 20-year long collaboration that has resulted in us developing not only a world-leading portable primary standard calorimeter for proton therapy but a device that we can use, directly in the clinic, to help standardise dose measurements from promising treatment techniques like FLASH and other ion therapies such as Carbon and Helium beams as they become more widely adopted by the clinical community.’

New dosimetry recommendations

The NPL is actively involved in producing new dosimetry recommendations for FLASH RT, which will be critical in harmonizing worldwide the dosimetry of UHDR beams and the underpinning of the FLASH mechanism.

Radiotherapy is used around the world as a treatment in up to 50 percent of all cancer cases. It is by far the most cost-effective method of cancer treatment when compared to surgery and chemotherapy. Accurate dosimetry is essential to avoid errors which might cause incorrect quantification of dose delivered to the patient and flawed interpretation of the clinical outcomes related to the FLASH effect. It could also reduce considerably the amount of time that cancer patients spend in hospital, freeing hospital staff and equipment to treat more patients and reducing both post-treatment complications and costs.

Read the full story here:

The work of the group is underpinned by the National Measurement System, whilst specific support for UHDR work has come from the UHDpulse, a project by European Association of National Metrology Institutes (EURAMET) focused on the development of metrology for advanced radiotherapy for UHDR particle beams:

Find Similar News