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Minimizing the Side Effects of Radiotherapy and Chemotherapy by the Use of Graphene Oxide Nano-Flakes


D Toomeh

D Toomeh1*, W Ngwa2 , (1) University of Massachusetts /Lowell, Harvard Medical School (2) Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA

Presentations

SU-I-GPD-T-640 (Sunday, July 30, 2017) 3:00 PM - 6:00 PM Room: Exhibit Hall


Purpose: It is well-known that chemotherapy and radiotherapy can result in severe side effects which critically impact the life quality of cancer patients.Our hypothesis is that combining platinum based anti-cancer drug carboplatin (CP) and Graphene Oxide nano-flakes (GONFs) during radiation therapy will significantly reduce these side effects and minimize the chances of cancer recurrence and metastasis.

Methods: We used Clonogenic Assays to assess the ability of colony formation for Human Lung Carcinoma cell line (A549) treated with GONFs, CP and a combination of both. Cell irradiation was performed by the use of the Small Animal Radiation Research Platform SARRP– Xstrahl. We assessed the cell viability for Human umbilical vein endothelial cell line (HUVEC) after treating with GONFs by the use of MTT assay.

Results: MTT assay results shows that 50 µg/ml GONFs is not toxic for healthy tissue. The combination of 50 µg/ml GONFs and 25µM CP can produce the same effect on A549 compared to 50µM CP only. This combination was able to reduce the colony formation by 20% of the control. Survival study for A549 treated with 50 µg/ml showed that GONFs was able to reduce the survival by 50% when combined with 2Gy, which is the same survival we got by treating the cells with 4Gy only.

Conclusion: Platinum based anti-cancer drug has severe side effects on cancer patients. Reducing the effective concentration of CP to 50% by combining it with GONFs can effectively minimize the side effects for patients and increase their life quality. One approach is to deliver the GONFs in-situ from smart radiotherapy biomaterials with potential of GONFs to also minimize chances of recurrence as shown in related studies.


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