Table-top cancer treatment with microbeams

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Microbeam Radiation Therapy (MRT) is an innovative, radically new approach to radiation therapy that utilizes high intensity synchrotron radiation. Instead of treating the tumour with homogeneous tumour conform doses, a collimator subdivides the radiation field into planar micrometre wide high dose areas (peaks) separated by a few hundred micrometre wide low dose regions (valleys). Doses in the peaks reach up to several hundred Grays, while doses in the valleys stay below the tissue tolerance level. MRT is equally effective in tumour treatment as conventional radiation therapy, but drastically reduces side effects to normal tissue as shown by a significant body of pre-clinical evidence. Unlike conventional radiation therapy, MRT specifically targets differences in the tumour and normal tissue microenvironment. Therefore, MRT would be extremely valuable for the treatment of tumours in radiation sensitive tissues, such as brain and lung. However, the dependence on a few large third generation synchrotrons in the world, has impeded preclinical research and a clinical application until know.Therefore, I am going to build a compact microbeam source that allows MRT in a hospital environment. I developed and patented the idea of such a source in the past that I call Line Focus x-ray Tube (LFxT). It is able to provide adequate beam properties for MRT and may be suitable for other medical applications, such as phase contrast imaging.I will use the LFxT for focussed bio-medical in-vitro and in-vivo research in order to investigate the mechanisms underlying MRT. I am going to determine MRT induced toxicities and measure immune responses using syngeneic tumour models in immunocompetent mice. Moreover, I will quantify morphological changes in the vasculature and analyse bystander signalling after MRT treatment. At the end of my project, the promising approach of MRT will be ready for first clinical trials at conventional hospitals.