INanoTheRad

Beat cancer

Cancer is the second leading cause of death in the world and remains more than ever one of the diseases against which research must be mobilized.

New therapeutic solutions

Radiotherapy is used in more than 50% of oncology treatments and is an important asset to fight cancer. However, the use of ionizing radiation (X-rays) is responsible for side effects in patients due to damage caused to healthy tissues, and also generates radioresistance. The INanoTheRad Interdisciplinary Center aims to advance practices and tools and to propose new clinical solutions based on the use of innovative radiation sources, drugs and nanoparticles aimed at increasing the sterilizing effect of radiation on the tumor, combating radiation resistance and personalize treatments.

New trades

The paradigm shift proposed by INanoTheRad requires parallel adaptation of training, the new professions in this field requiring increasingly interdisciplinary skills. To this end, the Center brings together a large network of researchers, teachers, and doctors from the University of Paris-Saclay who will pool their expertise to collectively advance the treatments and training of new generations of professionals.

An ideal setting

The research environment associated with major hospital centers for the treatment of cancer makes the University of Paris-Saclay a unique center in France and one of the best internationally: this includes all clinical and research platforms with an unequaled concentration of accelerators, innovations, as well as very high-level training in all the disciplines concerned. Consequently, INanoTheRad has positioned itself as one of the best centers in the world for research into innovative radiotherapy and thus responds to the strong demand for treatment solutions.

Goals

INanoTheRad will address the following challenges:
1/ the mastery of new medical sources and new protocols of use such as the Flash method (with a very high dose rate of electrons or protons, or an extreme dose rate of these same particles obtained by lasers and plasmas intense) or mini-beams (with spatial splitting of protons);
2/ The development of molecules and nanoparticles capable of targeting tumors and amplifying the effect of radiation and, potentially, of transporting contrast agents or drugs;
3/ The use of the latest techniques in Artificial Intelligence (AI) to implement more personalized adaptive radiotherapy in real time.