One in four deaths in the U.S. is from cancer, making it the second-leading cause of death after heart attack.  Radiation therapy—also called radiotherapy, x-ray, or irradiation—is typically used to kill cancer cells and shrink tumors.  Radiation therapy injures or destroys cells in the area being treated by damaging their genetic material, making it impossible for these cells to continue to grow and divide. The goal of radiation therapy is to damage as many cancer cells as possible, while limiting harm to nearby healthy tissue. About half of all cancer patients receive some type of radiation therapy, which may be used alone or in combination with other cancer treatments, such as chemotherapy or surgery. Radiation therapy may be used to treat almost every type of solid tumor. Radiation dose to each site depends on a number of factors, including the type of cancer and whether there are tissues and organs nearby that may be damaged by radiation. In this episode, we’ll take a look at how a Paris-based company, Nanobiotix, is using technology that it calls “nanoXray” to resolve radiation therapy’s biggest drawback: destruction of healthy tissue and its subsequent deleterious side effects when a high dose of x-ray is necessary. The Company believes that nanoXray offers a dramatic innovation in cancer therapy, based on a technology that is designed to allow destruction of cancer cells only—a new treatment weapon that could be used alone, or in concert with existing anticancer protocols: chemotherapy, surgery, and immunotherapy.  Because nanoXray does not interact with healthy cells, it is expected to prevent the toxic side effects associated with chemotherapy. 

Dr. Jean Bourhis (MD, PhD), a radiation-oncologist and researcher with the Institut Gustave Roussy, one of Europe’s leading cancer research and treatment centers, discusses radiation therapy and his experience with the emerging nanoXray technology.     

This podcast is one in a series called: Nanonmedicine & Targeted Cancer Therapies, which can be found at www.medtechmatters.com