The Effect of Alpha emitters and Radiofrequency Fields on cancer cells in culture.

forthcoming

The Effect of Alpha emitters and Radiofrequency Fields on cancer cells in culture. Alpha emitter radiation therapy involves the use of radionuclides that decay, emitting an alpha particle that kills the cancer cells. Radiopharmaceuticals that emit low levels of alpha particle radiation are used to treat different cancers. Compared to other treatment options such as external beam radiation and chemotherapy, alpha emitter radiation therapy results in better treatment outcome. There are however side effects such as pancytopenia, which may be attributed to the radiation dose administered to the patient. Combination therapy may lead to the use of lower doses of alpha emitters, achieving the desired treatment outcome with reduced side effects. An effective treatment regimen is one that kills the cancer cells with minimal to no normal tissue toxicity. There is, therefore, a need to explore other methods as modulators or modifying agents of the alpha emitter radiation therapy. Radiofrequency fields (RF) have been evaluated for their role as modulators of external beam radiation hence, they are good candidate to assess as modulators of alpha emitter radiation therapy. In the proposed work RF will be evaluated as potential modifying agents for alpha emitter radiation therapy using Ra-223. This project seeks to explore multimodality therapeutic approaches, for better treatment outcomes.