Gold Nanomaterials at Work in Biomedicine *
Valerio Voliani in Nanomaterials and Neoplasms, 2021
Radiotherapy is based on the use of high-energy radiation to damage or kill cancer cells, thus slowing down or even prohibiting the growth of a tumor [661]. The radiation commonly used for this purpose include X-rays, γ rays, electron beams, and protons, with X-ray radiotherapy being the most intensively studied. X-ray radiotherapy damages or kills cancer cells by generating photoelectrons and Auger electrons, which then cause the ionization of water and formation of reactive free radicals. Through the extraction of hydrogen atoms from ribose sugars, the free radicals can cleave polynucleotide backbones and thus damage the DNA in mitochondria and nuclei [662, 663. Similar to PTT and PDT, X-ray radiotherapy is a method for localized treatment that only affects the area under irradiation. The X-ray used for radiotherapy, however, provides much deeper penetration than the NIR light used to trigger PTT and PDT
Medical and Biological Applications of Low Energy Accelerators
Vlado Valković in Low Energy Particle Accelerator-Based Technologies and Their Applications, 2022
Varian hardware, software and professional services for radiation treatments are widely used on a global basis. There are more than 7,200 linear accelerators, 3,300 treatment-planning sites and 3,000 ARIA® sites in use worldwide. VARIAN offers the equipment and services in the fields of (Figs. 2.7–2.10):Radiosurgery involves the use of sophisticated technology to ablate tumors or other abnormalities with non-invasive, high-dose radiation.Radiotherapy uses high-energy radiation, usually X-rays, to damage cancer cells and treat tumors anywhere in the body where radiation treatment is indicated.Proton therapy uses beams of positively charged nuclear particles to deliver highly focused doses in the tumor.
Incident Reporting
Mike Kirby, Kerrie-Anne Calder in On-treatment Verification Imaging, 2019
Radiotherapy is a major treatment option in the management of many types of cancer. It's one of the safest of treatments, saving, prolonging, and improving the quality of lives for millions of people around the world each year (Eaton et al. 2018; WHO 2008). Although our treatments have become more complex and more efficacious, there is still the risk of harm, personal tragedy, or even fatal injury to a very small percentage of patients (RCR 2008b; WHO 2008). There is a continual drive to reduce this risk, not just by the improvement of procedures and processes and by the use of more technology, but also by learning from mistakes and errors made and those that have nearly amounted to larger mistakes but were stopped beforehand (near misses). For this to be effective, it requires an open and honest no-blame reporting and review structure to be in place in radiotherapy departments around the world, feeding information through at local, national, and international levels (Pawlicki et al. 2017; RCR 2008b; Eaton et al. 2018; Findlay et al. 2016; Milosevic et al. 2016; Chang et al. 2014; IAEA 2016a; IAEA 2018; Ford and Evans 2018).
NMN alleviates radiation-induced intestinal fibrosis by modulating gut microbiota
Published in International Journal of Radiation Biology, 2023
Xiaotong Zhao, Kaihua Ji, Manman Zhang, Hao Huang, Feng Wang, Yang Liu, Qiang Liu
Radiotherapy is a common treatment for a variety of cancers with high efficacy in killing cancer cells. But the damage caused by ionizing radiation (IR) to adjacent normal cells and tissues is also inevitable. Radiation induced intestinal injury is a typical side effect of radiotherapy for abdominal and pelvic cancer, accompanied with symptoms such as diarrhea, abdominal distension, and abdominal pain (De Ruysscher et al. 2019). Chronic intestinal damage, a major adverse effect in long-term cancer survivors, usually occurs ranging from months to 3 years after radiotherapy and results in intestinal fibrosis, mucosal atrophy, and microvascular sclerosis (Hauer-Jensen et al. 2014). Among them, intestinal fibrosis is irreversible and contributes to morbidity and mortality of patients receiving radiotherapy. However, there is an urgent need to develop effective clinical drugs and therapies.
Focus small to find big – the microbeam story
Published in International Journal of Radiation Biology, 2018
Shortly after Wilhelm Rontgen published his report about X-rays in December 1895 (Rontgen 1896), the first use of X-rays under clinical conditions was performed by John Hall-Edwards in Birmingham, England in January 1896 to radiograph a needle stuck in the hand of an associate. Since then, radiation has been applied to the medical field, including medical imaging, radiation oncology, and many more areas. Modern radiation therapy uses high-energy radiation to kill cancer cells and control tumor size (Lawrence et al. 2008), and about half of all cancer patients receive radiation therapy during the course of their treatment. Even though radiation therapy efficiently kills cancer cells by damaging DNA and causing mitotic cell death, potential damage to surrounding normal tissue by radiation also increase the probability of side effects, including fibrosis, fatigue, or even development of secondary malignancy. Based on epidemiological data from atomic bomb survivors and other radiation-related cohorts, radiation contributes to increased incidence of leukemia and solid tumors. It is clear that radiation functions as a double-edged sword in cancer treatment. Hence, precision irradiators provide essential platforms to study the properties of radiation in different experimental systems.
Advances in the discovery of microRNA-based anticancer therapeutics: latest tools and developments
Published in Expert Opinion on Drug Discovery, 2020
Kenneth K.W. To, Winnie Fong, Christy W.S. Tong, Mingxia Wu, Wei Yan, William C.S. Cho
Radiotherapy is widely used in combination with chemotherapy or targeted therapy for treating cancer. However, tumor hypoxia and the related abnormal DNA damage response are restricting the efficacy of radiotherapy [138,139]. Therefore, anti-angiogenic drugs have been combined with radiotherapy to enhance the therapeutic effect by increasing tumor oxygenation and inhibiting radiotherapy-induced angiogenic growth factor [140]. However, resistance to current targeted antiangiogenic drugs occurs rapidly. Alternative strategies to target angiogenesis in combination with radiotherapy are needed. Interestingly, cancer cells under hypoxic conditions tend to exhibit specific miRNA signature, which collectively stimulate angiogenesis [141,142]. In particular, the inhibition of a few hypoxia-induced miRNAs (including miR-155 and miR-210) has been shown to sensitize tumors to radiotherapy in NSCLC, nasopharyngeal carcinoma [143,144] by inhibition of angiogenic response to hypoxia. On the other hand, replacement of a few miRNAs (miR-34a and miR-200c), which regulate DNA damage response, has also been used as an effective approach to sensitize radiotherapy both in vitro and in vivo [145,146].
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