MEDICIS-PROMED — MEDICIS-produced radioisotope beams for medicine

Results in brief

MEDICIS-produced radioisotope beams for medicine

Ovarian cancer is presently the second deadliest form of cancer amongst women and has poor prognosis, despite significant research efforts in that domain. The most current cure combines chemotherapy and surgery. Often the pathology is diagnosed at an advanced stage of the disease. This type of cancer is then difficult to treat with external radiotherapy, because of possible presence of metastasis and because this organ is difficult to irradiate without collateral damages. New treatments are therefore highly needed. New treatments using isotope pairs have this potential, and is named "theranostics". The field of molecular oncology and nuclear medicine is rapidly evolving. Indeed this personalised medicine approach combines diagnosis by imaging - using PET/CT scanners - and subsequent treatment with a similar radiopharmaceutical for which the imaging isotope is replaced by a treatment isotope. In the recent years, PET/CT functional imaging using FDG - a glucose analog with an isotope which gives contrast in PET imaging - has had a significant impact on how the patients were managed during their treatment. Alongside the recent marketing of new drugs exploiting new radioisotopes and radioactivity such as Xofigo® and Luthatera® have shown important results to cure other forms of advanced cancers. This field is expected to further expand rapidly and provide new types of treatments combining personalized treatment and its imaging companion with the same radiopharmaceutical and different types of isotopes, emitting positron or gamma light for imaging on one side, and Auger electron, beta and alpha radiation for treatment on the other side. In addition, isotopes such as 11Carbon can "personalize" hadron therapy treatments by imaging the dose distribution of the implanted ions in European radiotherapy facilities using Carbon treatment such as the CNAO, Centro Nationale de e Oncologia near Milano and Medaustron near Vienna. MEDICIS-PROMED has significantly advanced the use of radioisotopes for personalized medicine in Europe. This was achieved in three interconnected Work-Packages, with 11 Early Stage Researchers hired by the beneficiaries and 4 recruited in Swiss partner organizations.

Data: CORDIS, © European Union

Project objective

Pure accelerated radioisotope beams have been used for 50 years in fundamental physics R&D, e.g. for nuclear structure studies (pear shaped exotic nuclei, Nature 2013); CERN-ISOLDE plays a central role in developing accelerator technologies and fostering collaborative approaches to advance this field of isotope mass separation online. Our most recent contribution was the use of nanomaterial targets for more intense and reliable beam production, and laser ion sources for their purification (discovery of yet unknown 233Francium).Radioisotopes are widely used for functional imaging in medicine, based on 99mTechnetium or on 18Fluorine. This field is expected to rapidly expand, when coupling imaging with new cancer treatments, with isotopes emitting different type of radioactivity, e.g. alpha particles. This is shown with the recently introduced 223Radium chloride (Xofigo®) used as a treatment drug in advanced bone cancers. However, either shortage in the supply of 99mTechnetium or lack of access to new radioisotope with adequate properties is a severe treat to develop personalized treatment that combine functional imaging and therapy.Ovarian cancers have poor prognosis, are the second most frequent cancer for women and one of the deadliest. They are difficult to treat, because of possible presence of metastasis, and because this region is difficult to irradiate without collateral damages.MEDICIS-PROMED will train a new generation of scientists to develop systems for personalized Medicine combining functional imaging and treatments based on radioactive ion beam mass-separation. This will be done across a coherent intersectorial multidisciplinary network with world-leading scientists in their field.Subsystems for the development of new radiopharmaceuticals, of isotope mass separators at medical cyclotrons, and of mass separated 11Carbon for PET-aided hadron therapy will be specifically developed to treat the ovarian cancer.

Original text from CORDIS.

Participants

ORGANISATION EUROPEENNE POUR LA RECHERCHE NUCLEAIRE · GENEVE 23CoordinatorSwitzerland
Advanced Accelerator Applications · Saint Genis PouillyFrance
CENTRE HOSPITALIER UNIVERSITAIRE VAUDOIS · LausanneSwitzerland
EBG MEDAUSTRON GMBH · WIENER NEUSTADTAustria
ECOLE POLYTECHNIQUE FEDERALE DE LAUSANNE · LausanneSwitzerland
FONDAZIONE CENTRO NAZIONALE DI ADROTERAPIA ONCOLOGICA · PAVIA PVItaly
GROUPEMENT INTERET PUBLIC ARRONAX · Saint HerblainFrance
INSTITUT MAX VON LAUE - PAUL LANGEVIN · GrenobleFrance
INSTITUTO SUPERIOR TECNICO · LisboaPortugal
Isis Innovation Ltd · OxfordUnited Kingdom
JOHANNES GUTENBERG-UNIVERSITAT MAINZ · MainzGermany
KATHOLIEKE UNIVERSITEIT LEUVEN · LeuvenBelgium
LEMER PAX · CARQUEFOUFrance
LES HOPITAUX UNIVERSITAIRES DE GENEVE · Geneve 14Switzerland
THE UNIVERSITY OF MANCHESTER · ManchesterUnited Kingdom

MEDICIS-PROMED · MEDICIS-produced radioisotope beams for medicine

Results in brief

MEDICIS-produced radioisotope beams for medicine

Project objective

Participants

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