Effects of nanoparticles combined with particle therapy and ultra-high dose rate very high-energy electron irradiation in 3D cell models
Dirigée par Sandrine Lacombe et Erika Porcel
Cancer treatment remains a major public health challenge. The search for personalized therapies that are more effective while maintaining patient comfort has driven the development of new non-invasive irradiation-based treatments, whose efficacy is still limited by damage to healthy tissues. In this context, irradiation modalities using fast ions (particle therapy) and, more recently, very high-energy electrons delivered at ultra-high dose rates (FLASH radiotherapy) have been developed. In parallel, clinical studies have demonstrated that the addition of radioenhancing nanoparticles increases the therapeutic efficacy of conventional X-ray radiotherapy within the tumor while sparing surrounding healthy tissues.
The aim of this work is to evaluate the effectiveness of combining radioenhancing nanoparticles with ion-beam and electron-beam irradiation modalities in order to improve the efficacy and targeting of these treatments.
To this end, a novel 3D in vitro spheroid model was developed to better reproduce the complexity of a tumor.