Astronomers Discover Potential New Cancer Therapy

Ohio State University astronomers are working with medical physicists and radiation oncologists to develop a potential new radiation treatment – one that is intended to be tougher on tumors, but gentler on healthy tissue.  In studying how chemical elements emit and absorb radiation inside stars and around black holes, the astronomers discovered that heavy metals, such as iron, emit low-energy electrons when exposed to X-rays at specific energies.

This discovery raises the possibility that implants, made from certain heavy elements, could enable doctors to obliterate tumors with low-energy electrons, while exposing healthy tissue to much less radiation than is possible today.  Similar implants could also enhance medical diagnostic imaging.
These findings of OSU senior research scientist Sultana Nahar were recently presented at the International Symposium on Molecular Spectoscopy.  Nahar announced her team’s computer simulations of the elements gold and platinum, and the design of a prototype device that generates X-rays at key frequencies. 

These simulations suggest that hitting a single gold or platinum atom with a small dose of X-rays at a narrow range of frequencies – equal to roughly one tenth of the broad spectrum of X-ray radiation frequencies – produces a flood of more than 20 low-energy electrons.

“We believe that nanoparticles embedded in tumors can absorb X-rays efficiently at particular frequencies, resulting in electron ejections that can kill malignant cells,” said Nahar.  “From X-ray spectroscopy, we can predict those energies and which atoms or molecules are likely to be most effective.”

Nahar and Anil Pradhan, professor of astronomy at Ohio State, discovered that particular frequencies of X-rays cause the electrons in heavy metal atoms to vibrate and break free from their orbits around the nucleus, creating what amounts to an electrically charged gas, or plasma, around the atoms at the nanometer scale.

They have thus dubbed their medical concept Resonant Nano-Plasma Theranostics (RNPT) – the latter word a merger of “therapy” and “diagnostics.”

For more details on their discover and its potential in fighting cancer, see the release from OSU.