Back to the Future: Very High-Energy Electrons (VHEEs) and Their Potential Application in Radiation Therapy

The development of innovative approaches that would reduce the sensitivity of healthy tissues to irradiation while maintaining the efficacy of the treatment on the tumor is of crucial importance for the progress of the efficacy of radiotherapy. Recent methodological developments and innovations, suc...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Cancers 2021-10, Vol.13 (19), p.4942
Main Authors: Ronga, Maria Grazia, Cavallone, Marco, Patriarca, Annalisa, Leite, Amelia Maia, Loap, Pierre, Favaudon, Vincent, Créhange, Gilles, De Marzi, Ludovic
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Biochemistry, Molecular Biology
Biophysics
Breasts
Cancer therapies
Energy
Life Sciences
Radiation therapy
Review
Tumors
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Summary:The development of innovative approaches that would reduce the sensitivity of healthy tissues to irradiation while maintaining the efficacy of the treatment on the tumor is of crucial importance for the progress of the efficacy of radiotherapy. Recent methodological developments and innovations, such as scanned beams, ultra-high dose rates, and very high-energy electrons, which may be simultaneously available on new accelerators, would allow for possible radiobiological advantages of very short pulses of ultra-high dose rate (FLASH) therapy for radiation therapy to be considered. In particular, very high-energy electron (VHEE) radiotherapy, in the energy range of 100 to 250 MeV, first proposed in the 2000s, would be particularly interesting both from a ballistic and biological point of view for the establishment of this new type of irradiation technique. In this review, we examine and summarize the current knowledge on VHEE radiotherapy and provide a synthesis of the studies that have been published on various experimental and simulation works. We will also consider the potential for VHEE therapy to be translated into clinical contexts.
ISSN:2072-6694
2072-6694
DOI:10.3390/cancers13194942