23rd
January 2002
AN INTELLIGENT COMBINATION
OF MATHEMATICS AND CELL BIOLOGY COULD SPELL DEATH TO BRAIN TUMOURS
Combining two separate observations of cells in brain tumours could
enable doctors to improve the success rate of radiotherapy. Speaking
today (23 January) at the Institute of Physics Simulation and Modelling
Applied to Medicine conference in London, Chemical Engineer Dr Norman
Kirkby from the University of Surrey will explain how using the
correct time intervals between a sequence of low dose radiotherapy
sessions could increase the chance of curing brain cancers that
tend to resist treatment.
The work started with the discovery that there is a class of brain
cancers (gliomas) that are susceptible to low doses of radiation,
but can resist high doses. These cancers can occur in children as
well as adults. They are difficult to treat because they do not
form solid lumps that can be removed by surgery. Instead they spread
in a diffuse manner through the brain.
The question was, would it be possible to find a way of getting
the most benefit from giving multiple sessions of low-dose therapy?
A team of chemical engineers, cell biologists and clinicians, drawn
from the University of Surrey, Addenbrooke's Hospital in Cambridge
and The Gray Cancer Institute at Mount Vernon Hospital in Middlesex,
came together to see if they could make some accurate predictions.
Kirkby and colleagues built a mathematical model that described
the biology of cancer, and the effect that radiation has on it.
Tumours grow when a number of cells multiply. For this to occur,
cells take part in a cycle of activity, in which they first produce
new copies of the genetic information, then check that the copies
have no errors, before finally splitting the cell into two. During
the checking phase of the cell cycle they also repair any errors
in the genetic code.
Radiotherapy works by damaging each cell's DNA. But if the therapy
is given when cells are in the repair phase of their cycle, they
will simply sort out the damage and carry on growing.
The new mathematical model is enabling the team to calculate the
best time intervals to leave between doses of radiation, so that
the maximum number of cells are caught at a time when they can't
repair the damage. It suggests that a patient should receive small
doses at fairly precise times, several times a day. This is new.
Standard systems of treatment give larger doses with intervals of
a few days.
"The model is convincing, but the challenge will be to find
ways of fitting this treatment schedule into the diaries of a working
radiotherapy department," says cancer expert Dr Neil Burnet.
Team member Dr Susan Short hopes that giving low doses of treatment
at optimum time intervals will mean that they can destroy the cancer
cells in people's brains without causing excessive damage to the
normal brain tissue.
Ends
For more information please contact Dr Neil Kirkby
at the University of Surrey, Tel: 01483 686577 or E-mail: n.kirkby@surrey.ac.uk.
Press enquiries to Liezel Tipper, Press Officer at
the University of Surrey, Tel: 01483 689314 or E-mail: press-office@surrey.ac.uk
Notes to Editors
The University of Surrey is one of the UK's leading professional,
scientific and technological universities with a world class research
profile and a reputation for excellence in teaching and research.
Ground-breaking research at the University is bringing direct benefit
to all spheres of life - helping industry to maintain its competitive
edge and creating improvements in the areas of health, medicine,
space science, the environment, communications, defence and social
policy. Programmes in science and technology have gained widespread
recognition and it also boasts flourishing programmes in dance and
music, social sciences, management and languages and law. In addition
to the campus on 150 hectares just outside Guildford, Surrey, the
University also owns and runs the Surrey Research Park, which provides
facilities for 80 companies employing 2,500 staff.
|
