Details of Grant 

EPSRC Reference:	EP/I017550/1
Title:	Ion Beam Radiotherapies: Comparison of Protons, Antiprotons and Heavier Ions
Principal Investigator:	Timson, Professor DJ
Other Investigators:	Savage, Professor K Schettino, Professor G Currell, Professor F
Researcher Co-Investigators:
Project Partners:	CERN National Institute for Nuclear Physics
Department:	Sch of Biological Sciences
Organisation:	Queen's University of Belfast
Scheme:	Overseas Travel Grants (OTGS)
Starts:	01 May 2011	Ends:	30 April 2012	Value (£):	35,921
EPSRC Research Topic Classifications:	Med.Instrument.Device& Equip.
EPSRC Industrial Sector Classifications:	No relevance to Underpinning Sectors
Related Grants:
Panel History:	Panel Date Panel Name Outcome 16 Feb 2011 Materials, Mechanical and Medical Engineering Announced
Summary on Grant Application Form
Radiation can cause cancer, but it can also be used to cure the disease. Indeed radiotherapy is more widely used than chemotherapy. It works by breaking DNA molecules in cells, which causes these cells to die. However, radiotherapy has a major problem: it isn't a very selective method and often damages healthy tissue, as well as killing the tumour. So a lot of work has gone into finding ways to minimise this damage, while making sure that the treatment still destroys the tumour.One way to improve the targeting of radiation is to use beams of ions (instead of x-rays, which are normally used). This works because ions do not lose much energy when they first enter the body (unlike x-rays which start depositing energy, and therefore causing damage, the moment they enter you). Instead they lose most of their energy at a precise distance into the body, at the so-called Bragg peak. The position of this Bragg peak depends on how fast the ions are travelling and what type of ions they are. So the position can be controlled such that it corresponds to the tumour. This enables the destructive power of the radiation to be focussed into the tumour, largely sparing surrounding, healthy tissues.Facilities which use hydrogen ions (protons) to treat cancer patients are in use in many countries worldwide. The results are impressive with improved treatment success and reduced side-effects. The NHS has recognised this potential and plans to build a new proton facility.However, the most modern facilities use ions from heavier elements such as carbon. It has even been suggested that ions of antimatter could be used. Although this sounds like something from a science fiction story, anti-protons can be made here on earth. They behave a lot like regular protons, passing through matter and depositing most of their energy at a Bragg peak. However, when an antiproton and a proton meet, they annihilate each other releasing even more energy. So they have the potential to be more effective than protons, because of this additional energy release.We have initiated a programme of experiments to compare how protons, carbon ions and antiprotons interact with living matter. We want to compare and contrast these different forms of radiation. In particular, we want to learn how they damage DNA in the cell. We have already learned quite a bit about how antiprotons damage cellular DNA. So we want to complete these experiments and extend them to protons and carbon ions. We will see if these types of radiation cause radical alterations to the chromosomes (the structures in cells which contain the DNA). We will see if the irradiated cells can repair their damaged DNA, and how fast they can do it. This is important because in radiotherapy we want to cause non-repairable damage. When irreparable damage occurs, cells often commit suicide in a special type of cell death called apoptosis. We will also look at the cells' chromosomes to see if any gross changes in structure have occurred.Although we can learn a lot from intact cells, they are sometimes just too complex. So we plan to use a special type of DNA molecule called plasmids because there is a straightforward method to see if these have been broken on one strand, both strands or in lots of places. We can also use this method to quantify the damage and find out how much radiation is required for a particular level of damage. So we should be able to compare the radiations.However, we can't do these experiments in the UK. There is only one source of antiprotons at sufficient energy in the world - at CERN in Geneva. Nor is there a source of carbon ions at clinically relevant energies. So for this we plan to travel to Catania (Italy) to do these experiments.The results will be of interest to oncologists looking at potential, novel cancer treatments, but also to a wide range of scientists who want to understand how radiation interacts with living matter.
Key Findings
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Organisation Website:	http://www.qub.ac.uk