NuCapCure APPROACH

Every year, more than 240,000 people worldwide are diagnosed with a brain tumour. Glioblastoma multiforme (GBM) is the most lethal yet unfortunately the most common brain tumour. The standard-of-care currently available for GBM patients is surgical removal of the affected brain tissue, followed by a combination of radio- and chemotherapy. This non-curative treatment regimen is both physically demanding for the patient and costly for the healthcare system, giving the patients an average of one year survival benefit.

An interdisciplinary and radical approach to the fight against GBM

The multidisciplinary NuCapCure consortium of physicists, chemists and biologists from six European countries is joining its expertise in the fields of nuclear physics, synthetic chemistry, biochemistry and radiobiology to take advantage of the chemical processes in diseased brain cells and cause them to get selectively destroyed under proton or neutron irradiation.

Two new hybrid treatments involving protons and neutrons

NuCapCure is working on two new therapeutic approaches against GBM:

NuCapCure Proton: a combination of proton radiotherapy, photosensitiser (PS) proton activation and boron proton capture therapy (BPCT)

NuCapCure Neutron: a combined approach of Glioblastoma multiforme-specific PS neutron activation and boron neutron capture therapy (BNCT)

These two approaches use the tumour cell's own biosynthesis to create novel chemical compounds which when irradiated by neutrons or protons will selectively destroy the cancer cells.

This ground-breaking, revolutionary technology will protect the healthy brain tissue surrounding the tumour and can therefore be curative without major side-effects.

Two-phase testing of the therapeutic approaches: In vitro and In vivo

The two NuCapCure treatment modalities will be validated in two phases. Initially, laboratory studies will be validated and optimised in cell cultures of Glioblastoma multiforme, while the most promising drugs will be further tested in vivo on preclinical GBM animal models.

After the official end of the project in 2028, there will be an interim transition phase in which further research will be conducted aimed at project commercialisation. In the long term, a company spin-off is intended to drive the NuCapCure therapies into the market and clinical studies on humans by attracting funding and investment capital. Ultimately, the use of proton and neutron-based NuCapCure therapies for the benefit of brain tumour patients are envisaged by around 2040.