Iron-dextran as a thermosensitizer in radiofrequency hyperthermia for cancer treatment

• Published in: Applied Biological Chemistry
• Main Authors: Hea-Jong Chung, Hyeon-Jin Kim, Seong-Tshool Hong
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: SpringerOpen 2019-04-01
• Subjects: Cancer; Hyperthermia; Iron-dextran; Radiofrequency; Thermosensitizer
• Online Access: http://link.springer.com/article/10.1186/s13765-019-0432-6
• ISSN: 2468-0834; 2468-0842

Abstract Radiofrequency hyperthermia is a recently rediscovered oncotherapy rising in popularity. However, lack of a proper thermosensitizer limits current radiofrequency hyperthermia to be only slightly effective, mostly being used as a subsidiary to a standard oncotherapy. Here, we report that iron-dextran delivers iron ion to cancer cells for cancer-selective accumulation of the iron ion, which functions as a thermosensitizer for radiofrequency hyperthermia. Intravenous injection of iron-dextran to tumor-xenografted mice resulted in selective accumulation of iron ion in the targeted cancer cells. The accumulated iron ion in cancer cells dramatically reacted to radiofrequency wave to result in tumor-selective dielectric temperature increment without harming the surrounding normal tissue. The oncotherapeutic effect of was evaluated using tumor-xenografted mice. The overall anticancer efficacy of radiofrequency hyperthermia after injection of iron-dextran as a thermosensitizer in breast cancer-bearing mice was much better than the efficacy of paclitaxel, a standard chemotherapy drug for cancer. Moreover, hyperthermia using iron-dextran as a thermosensitizer completely eradicated cancer in the tumor xenografted mice. This work suggests that iron-dextran is an ideal thermosensitizer for radiofrequency hyperthermia. We believe that the application of iron-dextran as a thermosensitizer would be a major progress in hyperthermia cancer treatments.