With support from the Cancer Prevention and Research Institute of Texas (CPRIT), the laboratories of Rice chemist Anna-Karin Gustavsson and University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center medical physicist Emil Schueler are collaborating to investigate a key mechanism of ultra-high-dose-rate radiation therapy, or FLASH RT, one of the most promising approaches in cancer radiation therapy.
Radiation is commonly used to treat cancer, but it can also damage healthy tissue and cause severe side-effects. Despite technological advances, the risks of severe side effects still limit the dose patients may receive, which, in turn, limits the likelihood that tumors will be completely destroyed.
FLASH RT is an emerging technology that has the potential to transform radiation oncology by rapidly delivering the radiation to tumors in a way that limits the risks of severe side effects. Numerous preclinical studies have shown the technique causes less damage to healthy tissues than conventional radiotherapy. To inform upcoming clinical studies of the safety and efficacy of FLASH RT, experts agree that substantial research is needed to reveal how FLASH RT works at a fundamental level.
“Unraveling how FLASH RT operates and understanding the mechanism of the FLASH effect is essential for realizing its potential,” said Gustavsson, the principal investigator on a CPRIT grant (RP240539) to investigate the underlying mechanism of the “FLASH effect,” a reduction in radiation-induced damage to normal tissue that has been well-documented in previous FLASH RT studies.
“We hypothesize that the FLASH effect is driven by the rate of production of distinctive reactive species during FLASH RT,” Gustavsson said. “We are developing a unique experimental system that will allow us to investigate the underlying mechanism of the effect, providing essential insights for the optimization of future treatment-design strategies.”
Gustavsson is a Norman Hackerman-Welch Young Investigator and assistant professor in the Department of Chemistry, a CPRIT Scholar in Cancer Research and director of the Center for Nanoscale Imaging Sciences in the Wiess School of Natural Sciences. Schueler is an assistant professor in the Department of Radiation Physics at MD Anderson Cancer Center.