New cancer treatment with no side effects

A team of researchers developed a new form of treatment for patients suffering from cancers. The innovative treatment is a kind of radiation therapy which produces none of the harmful side-effects of conventional chemo and radiation cancer therapies. Professor M. Frederick Hawthorn and his team at University of Missouri believe that their new method of treatment can save many lives every year. Hawthorne's team has developed a new form of radiation therapy that successfully put cancer into remission in mice. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, cancer painfully ends more than 500,000 lives in the US alone each year. Clinical trials in humans could begin soon after Hawthorne secures funding. "Since the 1930s, scientists have sought success with a cancer treatment known as boron neutron capture therapy (BNCT)," Hawthorne said. "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," he added Cancer cells grow faster than normal cells and in the process absorb more materials than normal cells. Hawthorne's team took advantage of that fact by getting cancer cells to take in and store a boron chemical designed by Hawthorne. When those boron-infused cancer cells were exposed to neutrons, a subatomic particle, the boron atom shattered and selectively tore apart the cancer cells, sparing neighboring healthy cells. The physical properties of boron made Hawthorne's technique possible. A particular form of boron will split when it captures a neutron and release lithium, helium and energy. Like pool balls careening around a billiards table, the helium and lithium atoms penetrate the cancer cell and destroy it from the inside without harming the surrounding tissues. "A wide variety of cancers can be attacked with our BNCT technique," 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," he added.