Summary

Today, more than half of all cancer patients receive radiotherapy as part of their treatment. However, radiotherapy efficacy is often limited by healthy tissues toxicity and needs to be optimized. One relevant solution is to increase the radiation dose deposition from within the tumor cells. The presence of high atomic number (high-Z) elements within the X-ray pathway increases the probability of interaction with ionizing radiation as compared with tissues (composed of low-Z elements). Likewise, mammalian cells can handle materials at the nanoscale. Therefore, materials made of high-Z elements designed at the nanoscale can enhance the deposit of the radiation dose at the cancer cell level.

Still, the most relevant design of these nano-objects has been scarcely explored. Here, we hypothesize that the packing of high-Z elements within the nano-object is a key parameter when considering its design. We used gold and probe how its packing at the nanoscale can achieve the best probability of interaction with ionizing radiation. […]