Hadassah surgeons do first-in-Israel treatment

Neurosurgeons at the Hadassah Medical Organization, Hadassah’s medical center in Jerusalem medical used an innovative therapy involving intracranial alpha radiation to treat a patient with recurrent glioblastoma.

Hadassah developed the therapy, called Alpha DaRT, in collaboration with Alpha Tau Medical, an Israeli oncology therapeutics company, to treat aggressive cancers of the head and neck, pancreas, skin and lungs.

The procedure, part of a Phase 1 clinical trial of Alpha DaRT (Diffusing Alpha-emitters Radiation Therapy), was led by Yigal Shoshan, MD, Director of Neurosurgery, Oncology and Stereotactic Radiosurgery at Hadassah.

Preliminary results of the Phase 1 trial published so far in the United States have aroused great interest in a neuro-oncology community dealing with a disease with extremely limited treatment options.

The new technology is based on the introduction of tiny sources that emit high-bioefficient alpha particles. Because the particles need travel only a short distance, the radiation is primarily concentrated in the tumor area, with minimal damage to nearby healthy brain tissue — a critical therapeutic advantage in such a sensitive organ.

Beyond Alpha DaRT’s localized effect, preclinical studies also suggest that the treatment may trigger an immune response to the tumor in other brain regions, a research area currently under active investigation.

The surgery was performed on a 77-year-old patient with recurrent glioblastoma, the most common and most aggressive brain tumor in adults. It almost always recurs even after surgery followed by radiation and chemotherapy.

To solve the technical challenge of covering as much of the patient’s large tumor as possible without sacrificing accuracy, Dr. Shoshan and his team implanted Alpha DaRT sources into the tumor through two separate trajectories simultaneously. This was the first time in the world a dual-trajectory approach had been used.

Approximately 14,000 people worldwide are diagnosed with glioblastoma each year, according to the National Cancer Institute. Unfortunately, the disease recurs in the vast majority of patients even after surgery followed by radiation and chemotherapy. The median survival period is 12 to 18 months, and only 5 to 7 percent of patients live for 5 years after their diagnosis, reports the Glioblastoma Research Organization.

In Israel, 150 to 250 people are diagnosed with glioblastoma annually, the median survival period is roughly 15 to 16 months, and only 10 percent of patients live for 5 years after their diagnosis.

For Hadassah’s research team, the successful operation was just the latest stage of a multi-year scientific journey that has moved from the laboratory to preclinical research to the development of the Alpha DaRT technology and its surgical application to the first clinical application in humans.