The focus of this work is on the synthesis and application of nanoparticles made from rare earth oxides as radiosensitizers in cancer therapy. While radiation therapy is the standard of care for treating many tumors found within the body, radiation toxicity can occur in healthy tissue as radiation travels through the body to reach the tumor. By selectively increasing the cytotoxicity of radiation only within the tumor tissue, radiosensitizing nanoparticles offer a potential avenue for decreasing the radiative dose given to patients during treatment, and thus mitigating harmful side effects.

The mechanism of radiosensitization used in this study is known as X-ray excited photodynamic therapy. In this method of radiosensitization, X-rays are used to indirectly excite a photosensitizer found in deep tissue environments, which results in the generation of reactive oxygen species. As the terminology suggests, these reactive oxygen species easily react with the organic compounds that make up the structure and functionality of cells, thereby reducing their functionality and inducing the death of tumor cells.

Rare earth oxides have not yet been thoroughly explored as a potential material for X-ray excited photodynamic therapy. This study will discuss the significant role these materials could play in the radiosensitization field. While this work focuses on applications towards pancreatic tumors, the use of these materials for X-ray photodynamic therapy could be generalized for many other tumor types found in deep tissue environments.