Tumour hypoxia occurs when cancer cells lack oxygen, and is associated with decreased effectiveness of radiotherapy treatments. One way to counteract hypoxia is to increase the dose of radiation we use to kill cancer cells, a technique called dose escalation.  However, many side effects have been reported due to surrounding organs being damaged by off-target radiation.

Researchers at the Paul Scherrer Institute in Switzerland, led by Dr Giovanni Fattori, have been investigating the clinical potential of hypoxia-guided radiotherapy with protons in advanced-stage lung cancer treatments.

Read the original paper: https://doi.org/10.1186/s13014-021-01914-2