Prostate cancer radiotherapy: potential applications of metal nanoparticles for imaging and therapy

Prostate cancer (CaP) is the most commonly diagnosed cancer in males.

There have been dramatic technical advances in radiotherapy delivery, enabling higher doses of radiotherapy to primary cancer, involved lymph nodes and oligometastases with acceptable normal tissue toxicity. Despite this, many patients relapse following primary radical therapy, and novel treatment approaches are required.

Metal nanoparticles are agents that promise to improve diagnostic imaging and image-guided radiotherapy and to selectively enhance radiotherapy effectiveness in CaP.

We summarize current radiotherapy treatment approaches for CaP and consider pre-clinical and clinical evidence for metal nanoparticles in this condition.

Br J Radiol. 2015 Jul 1:20150256. [Epub ahead of print]

Coulter JA1, Butterworth KT2, Jain S2.
1 School of Pharmacy, McClay Research Centre, Queen's University Belfast, Belfast, UK.
2 Centre for Cancer Research and Cell Biology, Queen's University Belfast, Belfast, UK.