Therapeutic Efficacy of 225Ac-containing Polymersomes

Cancer, still presenting one of the major challenges in modern healthcare, leads to more than 8.8 million deaths annually. While the main treatment options include surgery, chemotherapy, and radiotherapy, increasing attention is given to brachytherapy in e.g. the treatment of prostate cancer. Advantages of brachytherapy, as compared to radical prostatectomy and external beam radiation therapy, lie in the much higher radiation doses which can be given to the tumour tissue whilst spearing healthy tissue. Whereas in classic brachytherapy careful placement of the seeds is still essential for optimal irradiation of the tumour, recently a movement towards the use of micro and nano particles for intratumoural administration has begun. These particles are able to distribute themselves to and within the tumour tissue, and can be labelled with either beta or alpha emitters. We have shown in the past that polymersomes are ideal candidates to be used in alpha therapy, as they are able to retain the recoiling daughter nuclides of 225Ac to a large extent, thus limiting the renal toxicity caused by recoiling daughters.

DE KRUIJFF R. M.;  RAAVE R;  KIP A;  MOLKENBOER- KUENEN Jannike;  MORGENSTERN Alfred;  BRUCHERTSEIFER Frank;  HESKAMP Sandra;  DENKOVA A.G.; 

2019-07-24

ELSEVIER BV

JRC116461

1939-8654 (online),   

https://publications.jrc.ec.europa.eu/repository/handle/JRC116461,   

10.1016/j.jmir.2019.03.022 (online),