New Ultra-fast Flash Cancer Treatment Could Replace Radiotherapy
February 6, 2025 – Taking less than a second, a reported new form of cancer treatment could replace conventional radiotherapy and has fewer side effects.
About two-thirds of cancer patients receive radiotherapy during their treatment journey, making it one of the most common cancer therapies. However, radiotherapy still holds many challenges. These include that radiation often damages healthy patient cells and needs to be spread over treatment sessions usually up to eight weeks. With these challenges in mind, a pioneering cancer treatment has excited many in the medical field: Flash.
BBC reported on this new cancer treatment. They explain that Flash takes a different approach to radiotherapy, delivering ultra-high doses of particles in less than a second. With this short exposure time, Flash seems to target tumors with increased precision, more effectively sparing healthy tissue.
Eleven years ago, radiobiologist Marie-Catherine Vozenin and others published a paper detailing this Flash cancer treatment approach, invigorating many of their colleagues to conduct their own experiments. The BBC explains how over the past years animal studies have repeatedly provided evidence supporting Flash’s ability to increase the amount of radiation applied to the target while minimizing the negative effects on healthy cells. Additionally, they also note that other animal studies have also shown that subjects treated with Flash for head and neck cancer have experienced fewer of the common side effects.
Professor of radiation oncology, Billy Loo, tells the BBC that, “Flash produces less normal tissue injury than conventional irradiation, without compromising anti-tumour efficacy – which could be game-changing.”
Next Steps Of New Flash Cancer Therapy
The BBC reports that human trials are now underway. At the Lausanne University Hospital in Switzerland, oncologists are conducting trial treatments on skin cancer patients, researching how effective the treatment is and what side effects come forth. Additionally, an early-stage trial is taking place in Cincinnati Children’s Hospital in Ohio, US, for children with cancers that have metastasized to their chest bone.
These trial treatments will be crucial for determining the effectiveness of Flash.
Two more considerations concerning Flash need to be taken into account, explains the BBC. Referencing a paper by Billy Loo and others, they explain that scientists will need to choose which type of particle to use during the Flash treatment. Until now, protons have been the main choice. Lastly, BBC explains how the size of the machines needed for Flash treatment are still too large to be effectively used around the world in all hospitals. They quote André-Dante Durham Faivre, radiation oncologist at Hug, “If we can get a normal sized machine that fits in all the hospital bunkers in the world and can administer Flash, that can allow countries to treat many more patients.”
The Flash approach could be the next step in cancer treatment, and scientists are working hard to research and improve the viability of the treatment.
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Published by HOLR Magazine