A special test will determine the sensitivity to proton therapy

RUDN University staff, together with specialists from the National Research Medical Center of Radiology, have created a test system to determine the effectiveness of proton and neutron therapy in patients with breast and neck cancer even before treatment begins.

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Currently, this type of medical care brings the expected result only in 50% of cases. While the cost per patient is about 3.5 million rubles, and the number of possible recipients of therapy is limited.

The creators have already started clinical trials of the technology. At this stage, they are expanding the number of participants. The developers plan to receive a registration certificate for the methodology in 2026.

"A limited number of quotas are allocated for the entire country for the treatment of cancer with heavy particles. We suggested using a biopsy to take the tissue surrounding the tumor from the patient, make a cellular model of the neoplasm based on it, and irradiate it with protons or neutrons, thus evaluating the effectiveness of treatment. If it is ineffective, then we do not recommend this therapy and another one is selected for the person. This saves the patient's time and costs," said Timur Fatkhudinov, Director of the RUDN Research Institute of Molecular and Cellular Medicine.

Conclusions about the effectiveness of therapy are drawn based on changes in the expression of three genes, which were identified by the developers during a special study. In order to determine the relationship of genetic activity with the results of exposure to heavy particles, they took into account the occurrence of relapses in patients, their well-being after the session, as well as changes in the size of the tumor focus.