Development of charged particle therapy inducing nuclear fusion reactions in cancer cells

2023 Fiscal Year Final Research Report

• Project/Area Number: 22K19930
• Research Category: Grant-in-Aid for Challenging Research (Exploratory)
• Allocation Type: Multi-year Fund
• Review Section: Medium-sized Section 90:Biomedical engineering and related fields
• Research Institution: Tohoku University
• Principal Investigator: Terakawa Atsuki 東北大学, サイクロトロン・ラジオアイソトープセンター, 教授 (10250854)
• Project Period (FY): 2022-06-30 – 2024-03-31
• Keywords: 粒子線治療 / 重陽子融合反応

Outline of Final Research Achievements

The purpose of this study is to develop a novel deuteron therapy inducing high therapeutic effects on cancer cells through irradiation of cancer cells which have took up a deuterated drug, followed by deuteron fusion reaction in the cells. We developed the irradiation devices for the cell-irradiation experiment at CYRIC, Tohoku University. However, the cyclotron at CYRIC was broken and experiments could not be carried out for over a year. Thus, we carried out a simulation study using the PHITS code with the latest data library specifically for this research. As a result, increases in both absorbed dose and linear energy transfer were confirmed at the spatial scale of tissue and cell levels, suggesting the superiority of the treatment method proposed in this study.

Free Research Field

放射線医工学

Academic Significance and Societal Importance of the Research Achievements

陽子線や炭素線を用いる従来の粒子線治療と異なり、本研究が目指す新規粒子線治療は、巨大加速器を必要とする炭素線と比較して陽子線同様に規模は小さくでき、ブラッグピーク領域で減速した重陽子線が、腫瘍細胞内に予め伝達させた重陽子とDD核融合反応を引き起こす。その結果、核分裂破片の高LET粒子線で炭素線に匹敵する治療効果をもたらすと同時に腫瘍手前の正常組織には炭素線よりも副作用が小さい革新的、画期的な粒子線治療技術となる。よって、本研究はこれまでの粒子線治療の方向を大きく変換・転換させる可能性を有すると考えられる。