Three types of agents used in conjunction with radiotherapy

Radiosensitizers

Radiosensitizers are agents that make cancer cells more sensitive to radiation, thus, more susceptible to be killed by radiation therapy.  There are a number of potential radiosensitizing agents under investigation including mibefradil dihydrochloride (calcium channel blocker), heat-shock protein 90, histone deacetylase, camptothecin analogs, etc.

Radioprotectors

As discussed before, radiation not only damages DNA in cancer cells, it could also injure normal cells, especially the fast-growing cells (e.g., bone marrow cells, hair follicles, and intestinal cells).  Radioprotectors are agents that protect normal cells from the radiation injury, and they are given either before or during the radiotherapy.  We have conducted research work in this field for a few years and have published a number of scientific papers in this filed [30, 31].  Briefly, we have identified three new compounds as potential radioprotective/chemoprotective agents, UTL-5b, -5d, and -5g.  Among them, UTL-5g showed the most promising protective effects in several animal studies.  In our studies, we have shown that UTL-5g reduced the acute liver toxicity induced by radiation; we also showed that UTL-5g reduced some acute injuries in lung.  UTL-5g also reduced the damages on hair follicles, thus delayed the hair discoloration induced by radiation.

Radiomitigators

Radiomitigators are agents given hours or even days after radiation exposure to reduce the radiation damage and/or speed up the recovery of damaged cells, tissues, or organs.   They are more useful in national defense and less so in radiotherapy because patients to be treated by radiotherapy can always be pretreated by radioprotectors.

© Jiajiu Shaw, 2015

Disclaimer: This blog is written solely for informational purposes. It does not constitute the practice of any medical, nursing or other medical professional health care advice, diagnosis, or treatment. All contents posted are extracted from the book I am writing, "IS CANCER IN US", to be published in about two months.