Lattice therapy can help target tumors

Rio Grande Valley, Texas news station KRGV-TV highlighted University of Cincinnati Cancer Center researcher Andrew Frankart's new trial testing lattice therapy to provide more targeted radiation for patients with large tumors.

Lattice therapy is a technique where certain parts of tumors are preferentially targeted with higher doses of radiation compared to other areas. 

"Right now, with radiation, we're more restricted to moderate doses that can help relieve symptoms and provide a temporary effect, but may not be sufficient dosing to provide a lasting impact or to control the tumor itself," Frankart, MD, a Cancer Center physician researcher and assistant professor of radiation oncology in UC’s College of Medicine, told KRGV. "The difference with lattice therapy is it's still using that arc to generate a plan, but we're purposefully making spheres or circles of higher dose within the target."

A five-year, $729,000 American Cancer Society/American Society for Radiation Oncology Clinician Scientist Development Grant is supporting the translation of Frankart’s initial findings into clinical practice through the clinical trial, which is expected to enroll 37 adult patients and analyze the underlying biology of tumor and immune responses to lattice therapy radiation.  

“We’re focusing on patients who have large or bulky tumors. The approach is more based upon where it’s located and how large it is, and those are things that have previously prevented radiation from being as effective,” Frankart said. “Using this new approach to overcome some of those barriers hopefully means it can benefit more patients because we’re broadly including multiple disease sites.” 

Read or watch the KRGV-TV story.

Read more about the trial.

Featured photo at top of Frankart in a radiation treatment room. Photo/Andrew Higley/UC Marketing + Brand.