Dresden researchers find a way to improve cancer treatment

Dresden. Dresden physicists have made a discovery that could save lives in the future. It would make cancer treatment with proton beams much more precise and therefore more effective. And with fewer side effects. Two TU professors are now reporting on this for the first time in an interview with Sächsische.de.

Esther Troost is the Director of the University Clinic and Polyclinic for Radiotherapy and Radiooncology and Dean of Medicine. Aswin Hoffmann is group leader at the Helmholtz Centre Dresden-Rossendorf for Experimental Proton Therapy. Her teams have succeeded for the first time in the world in visualising a proton beam during irradiation with an MRI and observing it in real time in 3D.

The system used for the research contains two physically incompatible devices that interfere with each other. However, using complicated correction calculations, it was possible to combine imaging and irradiation. The researchers can now see exactly where the proton beam discharges its energy, i.e. where it can destroy tumour cells.

„This is the breakthrough“, says Aswin Hoffmann. Esther Troost confirms: „It is unique that we can see a beam and also where it ends.“

Unlike X-rays, for example, protons do not penetrate the body, they practically get stuck in it and release their energy there. Exactly where, however, has so far been based on model calculations of the human anatomy. This is practically impossible to control. In the future, however, this could become possible. With the result of better, more precise and customised radiotherapy for each individual patient.

„If the tumour moves, for example through breathing, then we want to synchronise the beam with this, i.e. track it“, says Hoffmann. This results in fewer side effects and better chances of recovery. The radiation dose can be increased without risk if you know exactly where the beam will hit. And the new precision makes proton irradiation possible in very risky regions such as the brain and spine.

These experiments are still being carried out on a water-filled phantom at Dresden's Oncoray, the National Centre for Radiation Research in Oncology. The first patient could be treated in this way from 2028 at the earliest, if research does not suffer any serious setbacks, says Esther Troost. The first patient with live tumour monitoring by MRI, but still without a visible proton beam, is to be treated here at the research complex as early as 2025.

And the laboratory is being expanded. Another five million euro piece of equipment will be added at the end of the month. An even larger, more powerful MRI scanner.

Article in the "Sächsische Zeitung" from 19 June 2023