Boron Radiotherapy May Cure Human Cancers

Scientists have recently developed a new type of radiation therapy that effectively pushes cancer into remission in lab mice. Significantly, this cutting-edge radiotherapy generated none of the destructive side effects of traditional chemo and radiation cancer therapies.

Clinical trials in humans could begin soon after the investigators secure funding. “Since the 1930s, scientists have sought success with a cancer treatment known as boron neutron capture therapy [BNCT],” said University of Missouri’s (MU; Columbia, USA) Prof. M. Frederick Hawthorne, a recent winner of the US National Medal of Science awarded by President Obama. “Our team at MU’s International Institute of Nano and Molecular Medicine finally found the way to make BNCT work by taking advantage of a cancer cell’s biology with nanochemistry.”

Cancer cells grow faster than healthy cells and in so doing, absorb more substances than normal cells. Prof. Hawthorne’s team exploited that fact by getting cancer cells to capture and store a boron chemical designed by Prof. Hawthorne. When boron-infused cancer cells were exposed to neutrons, the boron atom shattered and selectively ripped apart the cancer cells, sparing surrounding healthy cells.

The physical features of boron made Prof. Hawthorne’s technique possible. A specific form of boron will split when it captures a neutron and release lithium, helium, and energy. Similar to pool balls zigzagging around a billiards table, the lithium and helium atoms penetrate the cancer cell and destroy it from the inside without harming the neighboring tissues.

“A wide variety of cancers can be attacked with our BNCT technique,” Prof. Hawthorne said. “The technique worked excellently in mice. We are ready to move on to trials in larger animals, then people. However, before we can start treating humans, we will need to build suitable equipment and facilities. When it is built, MU will have the first radiation therapy of this kind in the world.”

The study’s findings were published ahead of print on March 27, 2013, in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America (PNAS).

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