September 9th, 2015; MagBioVin Workshop Effects of Magnetic Hyperthermia on the Cancer Cell Death
Within announced MagBioVin workshop, prominent expert in the field gave his lecture on several topics related to the development of magnetic hyperthermia.
11:00 Dr. Spiridon Spirou from Technological Educational Institute of Athens, Greece
The Radiobiological Basis of Radiation Therapy and Hyperthermia
Dr Spirou received his Bachelor of Science with Honour from California Institute of Technology, USA (Dept. of Applied Physics) in 1989, the Master in Science from Columbia University, New York, USA in 1992 and the PhD in Medical Physics in 1996. His research interests include radiotherapy, Monte Carlo simulations and GATE and image reconstruction. Research group of Dr Spirou works on modeling of magnetic nanoparticle hyperthermia setups using COMSOL simulation toolkit. The lecture title of Dr Spirou was ‘The Radiobiological Basis of Radiation Therapy and Hyperthermia’.
Dr Spirou lecture introduced the basics of radiation therapy theory, with a discussion on differences between photon and electron radiation. Also, he discussed usage of multiple beams to optimize tumour localization and the necessity to include the properties of biological tissues in the calculation of radiation dosage. Part devoted to Radiobiology comprised the effects of radiation therapy on the cancer cell death, the mechanisms of cell DNA damage and possibilities for its repairing. Special time was devoted to the problem of higher doses that should be used in the treatment of hypoxic cells, which are often present in the tumours. Since this kind of cells are heat sensitive, magnetic hyperthermia combined with radiation therapy can lead to the increased efficiency of the clinical treatments. In the optimal conditions, the elevated temperature of the tumour tissue (from 41 to 45 C) using magnetic hyperthermia should be applied during 1 h, combined with the lowering if pH value of tumour cells. Benefits of combined RT and magnetic hyperthermia were also found in the effect of triggering of immune system, which was evidenced during the clinical trials.