Researchers from the University of Missouri managed to cause boron atoms to disintegrate inside cancer cells and release lithium and helium that destroy the cell from the inside without harming the surrounding healthy cells
Cancer is a cause of death for tens of millions of people worldwide. The scientific crusade against cancer was recently won by researchers from the University of Missouri led by Frederick Hawthorne.
The team members developed a new method of radiation therapy that succeeded in eradicating cancerous tumors in mice. The treatment did not produce harmful side effects like the conventional chemotherapy and radiation treatments, the researchers claim. Hawthorne promises to conduct clinical trials as soon as the appropriate funding is obtained.
"Since the 20s, scientists have been able to overcome cancer using boron neutron capture therapy (BNCT)," says Hawthorne, who recently won the National Medal of Science from President Obama at the White House. "Our team at the International Institute for Nanoscale and Molecular Medicine at the University of Missouri found a way to allow the BNCT treatment to work while utilizing the biology of the cancer cells together with nanochemistry."
"Cancer cells grow faster than normal cells and in this process they absorb more substances than normal cells. Hawthorne's team took advantage of this fact by making cells store a boron compound that he designed. When these cells that were injected with the compound were exposed to neutrons - subatomic particles - the boron atoms disintegrated and selectively tore the cancerous cells with them, and did not harm the neighboring healthy cells.
The physical properties of the pit made the new technique possible. A certain form of boron fissions when it captures a neutron and releases lithium, helium and energy. Like billiard balls tipping around the pool table, the helium and lithium atoms penetrate the cancer cells and destroy them from the inside without damaging the surrounding tissues.
"Using our BNCT technology, it is possible to attack a wide variety of cancer cells," says Hawthorne. "The technique works well in mice. Now we are moving to larger animal experiments and then humans. However, before we can take care of humans, we will need to build appropriate equipment and buildings. When they are built at the University of Missouri, it will be the first facility in the world for radiation therapy of this type in the world."
to the notice of the researchers
For the scientific article in PNAS
Comments
Itai
Treatment methods using neutrons were proposed more than 70 years ago. Look at Wikipedia. They were rejected outright due to their dangerousness and because the damages they may cause are highly probable. There is no realistic chance that a medical device manufacturing company will create equipment for healing using neutrons due to the dangerousness of the treatment. Therefore the script you mentioned will never be executed.
As for the damages that will be caused, after treatment, they will not be caused after 15 years but after say 5 months when metastases of the original cancer develop. The development of a surgical treatment that would prolong life by only a few months is not acceptable in medicine and therefore will probably not be realized. We only develop expensive equipment that will last for several years.
You will read about cancer surgery and you will understand that the biggest complication of a failed surgery is that cancer cells from the original tumor escape the removal of the tumor. This is exactly the problem with surgery by neutrons which is a very crude therapeutic tool that will miss a significant part of the cancer cells and leave them alive.
In order for the researchers to invest in the development of equipment, they must first carry out long-term studies that will prove the effectiveness of the treatment over time. Admiring the absence of symptoms shows that they miss the main problem, which is complications that are not immediate. If they don't do studies on the absence of damage in the immediate term
— They waste their time and the money that would be allocated to expensive equipment.
Let's see, when I understand your response, a doctor turns to a patient and tells him, yes, the disease that kills you can be cured and even kill you within months, but we will not do that because the studies have proven that we increase your chance of getting another cancer from a chance of one in 1000 to a chance of 1 in three of you within about 15 years. And the patient is a friend, thank you very much Doctor for saving me from the treatment that would have saved me from certain death and preventing what I assume is a faint and remote chance of a guilty side effect into the undefined future.
safkan
You're right. The researchers didn't think about it.
Sorry I didn't understand you.
Miracles
As usual, I don't usually respond to your words, because in my view your bothersome reasoning has no value, in the present case, you twisted my words and you are arguing with the twisting you created yourself, this is what we call rationally and rationally the "straw man method".
All I said is that you shouldn't get too excited about the fact that there are no side effects, because there may be cumulative damage without noticeable side effects. This does not mean that there is no need to add and explore, just not to get too excited.
I will no longer respond to your words on this subject.
safkan
So you suggest not to continue the tests?
What you write is always true, for every treatment - there is a risk of side effects...
In my opinion, the article is encouraging and I am glad that there are people who think differently than you.
The claim that bombarding the body with neutrons does not cause physical damage seems strange and unconvincing to me.
There are many radiations, such as radioactive radiations or X-rays that do not cause immediate side effects but cumulatively cause many damages and mainly to create cancerous tumors. What will help us if we cure someone from one cancer tumor and create other types of cancer tumors in him?
experience. Testing the reaction system. ignore.