The license allows Isotron to market a treatment called neutron brachytherapy, which enables physicians to deliver a highly concentrated dose of californium-252 neutrons to the site of a tumor instead of having to treat the tumor with conventional gamma rays, which often are not as effective at killing cancer cells. The benefit to patients should be tremendous.
"This new procedure could be used to more effectively treat literally thousands of patients with cancer, including brain tumors, some of which today have five-year survival rates of less than 1 percent," said Manfred Sandler, a cardiologist and chief executive officer of Isotron. "So we see this as an extremely significant development in the race to cure cancer."
Sandler hopes the treatment, which will allow physicians to treat nearly 20 types of cancer, is available by early 2007. Cancers most resistant to conventional treatments include brain tumors, melanoma, sarcoma, certain types of prostate cancer, locally advanced breast cancer, cervical cancer and cancer of the head, neck and mouth.
The key to the new treatment is the miniaturization of the californium-252 source, which allows physicians to insert the radioisotope through a catheter directly to the tumor site. Researchers at Isotron and in ORNL's Nuclear Science & Technology Division reduced the diameter of the source -- the wire that contains the radioisotope -- by more than half from the previous standard of about 2.8 millimeters. The length has also been significantly reduced. Although the dimensions are much smaller, the strength of the source is significantly higher. This makes it possible to reach and treat tumors that previously could be treated only with conventional photon
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Contact: Ron Walli
wallira@ornl.gov
865-576-0226
DOE/Oak Ridge National Laboratory
24-Nov-2004