An MU researcher has developed a radiation therapy that causes cancer remission in mice without any discernible side effects. Plans at MU are to begin clinical trials on human patients once funding is obtained and infrastructure built.
M. Frederick Hawthorne — director of the MU International Institute of Nano and Molecular Medicine, and Curators Distinguished Professor of Chemistry and Radiology — said the treatment could eliminate much of the need for chemotherapy and radiation cancer therapies, both of which have dramatic side effects.
Hawthorne’s coauthored paper on the process was published Feb. 27 in the online journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. He is one of four current MU faculty who are members of the National Academy of Sciences.
Once funds are obtained to build facilities and buy the necessary medical equipment, “MU will have the first radiation therapy of this kind in the world,” Hawthorne said.
Hawthorne and his team developed the technique called Boron Neutron Capture Therapy (BNCT). Cancer cells are injected with boron. Neutrons, courtesy of the MU Research Reactor, batter the cancer cells and are absorbed by the boron. The chemical reaction kills the cancer cells. The therapy might be in hospital clinics in five years, Hawthorne said.
The technique may also be used to treat arthritis, heart disease, Alzheimer’s and a wider variety of cancers, he said.
Hawthorne joined MU in 2006 after years as a researcher at the University of California–Los Angeles. He received Feb. 1 from President Barack Obama in Washington, D.C., the National Medal of Science, the nation’s highest honor for American scientists.
MU’s International Institute of Nano and Molecular Medicine was created largely to facilitate Hawthorne’s research. Besides studies on boron, the institute focuses on applications of nanotechnology in medicine, engineering microscopic motors, inventing methods to store hydrogen fuel and designing materials to store energy.
Hawthorne said the discovery was possible only at MU because of the university’s interdisciplinary approach in science and engineering, the strength of its biomedicine departments and the Research Reactor, the only of its kind at an American university.
“This combination is unique,” Hawthorne said.
CORRECTION: "Neutron" was spelled incorrectly in a previous version of this story. — The Editor