ENGINEERINGNET.BE – Cancer is currently still treated through radiotherapy, surgery and chemotherapy, which are used alone or in combination. Targeted therapy and immunotherapy are two newer treatment options.
Prof. dr. Mark De Ridder, Head of Radiotherapy UZ Brussel: “Nowadays, radiotherapy can precisely tailor the radiation dose to the target, while sparing the adjacent normal tissues as much as possible in order to limit toxicity.”
“Irradiation is done very accurately on the basis of anatomical and clinical information, but at the moment cannot yet be based on biological information, such as the microenvironment, the expression of certain genes or metabolism of the tumor.”
A first step in the research was to find out which aspects contributed to resistance to radiotherapy in patients with head, neck, cervical and breast cancer. Genetic data of these patients were extracted from an international database and specific genetic signatures were associated with the survival of the patients.
VUB researcher Sven De Mey: “Although the data on the three cancer types were not identical, we found that biological processes linked to radiobiology, metabolism and growth of the cells were associated with the survival of patients who received radiotherapy.”
De Ridder: “Most tumors show a lack of oxygen because they grow too fast for their blood supply. This lack of oxygen is the main cause of radiotherapy failure. Sven de Mey’s doctoral research addresses this problem.”
For this he focused on two essential processes of energy metabolism. These processes were influenced by three different chemicals, dichloroacetate, metformin and phenformin, which have already been used in the clinic, including for the treatment of diabetes.
De Mey: “We have thus shown that there are several options for making tumors more sensitive to radiotherapy. Influencing the metabolism of the cells to increase the effect of radiotherapy is a powerful strategy.”