A research study on magnetic hyperthermia for colorectal cancer treatment lead by an interdisciplinary research team from the Galdakao Hospital and the University of the Basque Country (UPV/EHU) has received an award at the European Congress of Radiology held in Austria at the beginning of March.

The study, funded by the SAIOTEC programme of the Basque Government and the FIS programme of the Carlos III Health Institute under the Ministry of Science and Innovation and Innovation deals with hyperthermia mediated by magnetic nanoparticles as cancer therapy. Still at its dawn, it might be a cost-effective less-invasive therapy when compared to conventional treatments such as surgery, chemotherapy or radiotherapy.

The interdisciplinary group involved in the study includes researchers from: the Radiodiagnostics Service of the Galdakao Hospital, lead by Dr. José Javier Echevarría; Osatek, the public body of the Basque Government for image analysis; the Laboratory of Experimental Surgery of the Faculty of Medicine, UPV/EHU; and the Electricity&Electronics, Inorganic Chemistry and Analytical Chemistry Departments of the Faculty of Science and Technology of the UPV/EHU.

Colorectal cancer is one of the most common neoplastic processes in the western world. Moreover, in a high percentage of patients, the disease often extends to the liver where metastases appear. Nowadays, surgical removal is the preferred treatment for these metastases. However, for different reasons the percentage of patients with removable metastases does not surpass 30% of patients affected with this liver disease.

The Basque research group has developed a magnetic fluid based on a mixture of 10 nm iron oxide magnetic nanoparticles and an iodised oil for medical use. This fluid can provide local heat and, since it can follow intra-arterial administration, its use for non-extirpable liver metastases treatment is under evaluation. By using an animal model – laboratory rats with induced liver metastases – the study analysed the magnetofluid distribution through the vascular tree in both healthy liver and metastatic liver resulting from colon cancer at different development stages using Magnetic Resonance (MR) and ICP Spectrometry.

Spectrometry determination of iron content in tumour damage together with MR image analysis concluded that there are significant differences in tumour vascularisation according to progress rate. While progressed metastases globally showed low affinity for the magnetofluid, low size tumour damages were highly eager for it. In consequence, an increased tumour volume does not imply a similar vascularisation development, leading to badly irrigated areas in tumour beds. Thus, the usefulness of intra-arterial anti-tumour treatment might be limited in this case.

According to Dr. Echevarria “the potential to apply a thermal therapy locally to a tumour bed is a question of great interest for two main reasons: on the one hand, the heat’s direct toxic effect on the neoplastic tissue and, on the other, the indirect effect derived from the hyperthermia which provokes an increased cell sensibility to other local therapies such as radiotherapy or chemotherapy”. “Thus, intra-arterial thermotherapy can be useful as such or jointly with other treatments; consequently, further research to include it in the anti-tumour therapeutic inventory is justified”, he remarks.

In turn, Fernando Plazaola, professor of Applied Physics at UPV/EHU, appreciates the award won in Austria as a "recognition of collaborative work like the one addressed by the interdisciplinary research group involving researchers from the university, health care system and other industrial stakeholders"