CAMD Targets Cancer
Ken Hogstrom, Marie Varnes, Kip Matthews, Erno Sajo, Medical Physics Group Department of Physics and Astronomy and Mary Bird Perkins Cancer Center
Current radiation therapy techniques treat cancer by irradiating a volume of tissue that contains both healthy and cancerous tissue. Potential damage to healthy tissue can limit the amount of radiation dose to the cancer. Professor Research at CAMD is searching for drugs that will allow radiation dose to preferentially target the cancerous cells. Synchrotron x-rays of selected energy can release powerful, local dose to cancer cells if drugs with appropriate properties are present. Research to date has focused on a well known radiosensitizing drug called iododeoxyuridine (IUdR). Future research is aimed at determining the optimal energy of the synchrotron x-rays used to deliver dose to IUdR-laden cells. As part of this research the CAMD medical radiological beamline is being upgraded to allow completion of the current study and to offer opportunity for future collaboration with regional facilities to study other drugs. Our goal is to develop a new paradigm for radiation therapy that will allow radiation dose to be more effective in killing specific cancers while doing insignificant damage to healthy tissue.
Although radiation can be focused on a tumor, its effect is non-specific for cell damage that results – both healthy and cancerous cells are affected
