Targeted Radiotherapy with Gold Nanoparticles: Current Status and Future Perspectives

Abstract

Radiation therapy (RT) is the treatment of cancer and other diseases with ionizing radiation. The ultimate goal of RT is to destroy all the disease cells while sparing healthy tissue. Towards this goal, RT has advanced significantly over the past few decades in part due to new technologies including: multileaf collimator-assisted modulation of radiation beams, improved computer-assisted inverse treatment planning, image guidance, robotics with more precision, better motion management strategies, stereotactic treatments and hypofractionation. With recent advances in nanotechnology, targeted RT with gold nanoparticles (GNPs) is actively being investigated as a means to further increase the RT therapeutic ratio. In this review, we summarize the current status of research and development towards the use of GNPs to enhance RT. We highlight the promising emerging modalities for targeted RT with GNPs and the corresponding preclinical evidence supporting such promise towards potential clinical translation. Future prospects and perspectives are discussed.

Nanoscale radiation transport and clinical beam modeling for gold nanoparticle dose enhanced radiotherapy (GNPT) using X-rays

“…The main purpose of using gold nanoparticles (GNPs) in radiotherapy is to enhance ionizing energy deposition at nanometre to micrometre distances from nanoparticles 1,2 and through this to increase the tumour control probability and decrease the normal tissue complication probability (NTCP). The ultimate goal of radiation transport computations for GNP dose-enhanced radiation therapy (GNPT) is to estimate the overall impact of various physical and clinical factors on the tumour control probability and NTCP.…”

Using immunotherapy to boost the abscopal effect

“…However, radiotherapy is limited by normal tissue toxicity, and it is generally prescribed for treatment of localized tumours. Recent technological advances have focused on addressing the toxicity limitation, with advanced radiotherapy modalities aimed at achieving greater therapeutic effectiveness (that is, greater tumour cell killing with less normal tissue toxicity and less time under treatment compared with previous approaches) 2,3 . These advanced radiotherapy technologies and approaches include intensity-modulated radiation therapy (IMRT), image-guided radiotherapy (IGRT), high dose rate (HDR) brachytherapy, stereotactic ablative body radiotherapy (SABR), proton therapy and carbon ion radiotherapy.…”

Nanoparticle-Mediated Tumor Vascular Disruption: A Novel Strategy in Radiation Therapy

“…[4][5][6] By specifically targeting AuNP to malignant tumor cells using "enhanced permeability and retention" (EPR) driven passive or peptide/antibody-mediated active tumor targeting, radiation damage can be invoked to the tumor cells upon irradiation. [7][8][9][10][11][12][13][14][15][16] Several preclinical studies have demonstrated this in different preclinical tumors, including prostate, breast, head and neck, cervical, sarcoma, glioblastoma, colorectal, and melanoma. 14,[17][18][19][20][21][22][23][24][25] Previous studies have examined the potential for a classic clonogenic effect in cancer cells leading to improved radiotherapeutic efficacy.…”