12-I Dosimetric and radiobiologic characterization and development of a novel technology for intratumoral radiotherapy with alpha particles (DaRT) using microfluidic Lab‐on‐a‐chip technology

Summary

Each year, 80 000 Canadiens will die from cancer which is the main cause of death in Canada despite continuous effort to improve established treatment technologies such as radiotherapy. Patients in radiation‐oncology can now benefit from various technologies in both external radiotherapy (IMRT, VMAT and SBRT) and internal radiotherapy (HDR and LDR brachytherapy) but all of these are based on the same type of radiation; high energy photons that have a low biological effectiveness as well as a long range leading to a delicate trade‐off between covering the tumour or limiting the toxicity to the adjacent healthy tissues. Alpha particles emitted from radioactive decay have a high biological effectiveness and a short range allowing to treat refractory tumours without toxicity to the adjacent tissues. AlphaTau Medical Ltd (Tel Aviv, Israel) recently developed an intratumoral brachytherapy method called “Diffusing alpha‐emitters Radiation Therapy” (DaRT) (patent #10058713, 28/08/2018). Despite the high potential of DaRT, many developments are necessary to optimize its use in combination with conventional radiotherapy. Microfluidic Lab‐on‐a‐chip (LOC) methods developed at CRCHUM offer the possibility to study the diffusion process of alpha‐emitters based on perfusion parameters that simulate the tumor environment, a crucial step for high precision treatment planning. Optimization of the DaRT treatment in combination with conventional radiotherapy will be done both by dosimetric studies and LOC radiobiology studies. Finally, these processes will be validated by in vivo and ex vivo methods of dose verification.

Partners