Radiation is part of treatment for about half of cancer patients, yet many types of radiation therapy don’t reach all parts of the body, according to the American Cancer Society.
Now a scientific breakthrough could change the future of the treatment and open up the option for others who may not have been able to get it.
Fifty-seven-year-old Susanne Kluh was diagnosed with non-small cell lung cancer that had metastasized into her back and neck, and wasn’t ready to take her first doctor’s dire prognosis that the tumors in her neck, spine and lung were a death sentence.
"You have to gather your strength and get second opinions and find the people that can provide you with the right treatment to give your life a chance," she said.
She turned to cancer research center City of Hope, in Duarte, California, in the Los Angeles metropolitan area.
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Last week, following her second-to-last radiation treatment with radiation oncologist Dr. Yufei Liu, Scripps News was able to join Kluh. Now, the tumors that once caused so much pain it hurt the biologist to stand, walk, or hike, are no longer doing that. She credits a breakthrough radioactive tumor-tracing technology, called SCINTIX, from biotech company RefleXion.
The FDA granted SCINTIX a Breakthrough Device designation in 2021, and in 2023 granted clearance to SCINTIX for the treatment of primary or secondary cancers in the lung and bone.
The FDA describes it as a “combination linear accelerator and positron emission tomography system that can treat targets in lung and bone using biology-guided radiation therapy.”
"It can, number one, keep the radiation focused on the tumor. And number two, it can spare normal tissue from the radiation, as we don't need as large of a margin," Dr. Liu explained as he showed the machine to Scripps News.
The technology of biology-guided radiation builds upon the technology of PET scans some may be familiar with. Biology-guided radiation works something like this: a patient is injected with a radioactive glucose (or sugar) tracer. The machine picks up the tracer in real time and in bright colors, instead of with time lag and in black and white scans like a traditional CT, Sam Mazin, RefleXion founder and chief technology officer explains. The machine reads a signal from the cancer cells breaking down the tracer.
"The tumor is literally sending out signals to the machine and the machine is automatically and autonomously reacting and responding to those signals by shooting radiation back to their source," said Mazin.
Marzin says about 30 patients have been treated and seven hospitals across the country have SCINTIX therapy so far.
"We're still running clinical trials with this machine to help to expand those indications and to make sure that this technology can be safely utilized in multiple different tumor cases," Dr. Liu says.
Susanne's part of such research, and they haven’t published results yet. But she says she's been elated by how she feels, and her scans.
"It was like a big storm brewing, right? Like, you see those Doppler radars everywhere ... And then after the three months on treatment and the radiation and the SCINTIX, it was like it was starting to calm."
Doctors have also used traditional radiation and a targeted therapy as they fight Susanne's lung tumor. From there, she continues her cancer battle, one step at a time.
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