The University of Catania and the Southern National Laboratories of INFN – National Institute for Nuclear Physics announce the completion of the installation and commissioning of a linear accelerator for Electron FLASH Therapy at the Center for Advanced Preclinical in vivo Research (CAPiR) of the University of Catania. The machine, produced by the Italian company SIT, is among the first available in Italy for preclinical research in the field of oncology and is operational within an integrated translational research centre.
“This result concretely strengthens the University of Catania’s capacity to carry out cutting-edge biomedical research,” underlines Giovanni Li Volti, Professor at the University of Catania and President of CAPiR. “Having this technology within an integrated preclinical centre such as CAPiR puts us in a position to launch studies that until yesterday required us to go elsewhere, with implications that in the medium term may concern treatment protocols for oncology patients,” concludes Li Volti.
The acquisition of the accelerator was carried out within the framework of the ANTHEM project – AdvaNced Technologies for Human-centrEd Medicine, funded by the Italian Ministry of University and Research under the National Complementary Plan to the National Recovery and Resilience Plan (PNRR): a total budget of €123 million, 23 partner institutions, more than 250 researchers engaged in four thematic Spokes dedicated to biomedical innovation, including Spoke 4 coordinated by the University of Catania and dedicated to the development of next-generation cancer therapies, from FLASH Therapy to Boron Neutron Capture Therapy.
FLASH Therapy: a new frontier against cancer
FLASH Therapy delivers electron beams at ultra-high dose rates – up to one thousand times higher than conventional radiotherapy – in fractions of a second. Preclinical radiobiological studies have documented that this approach significantly preserves healthy tissues while maintaining unchanged therapeutic effectiveness against tumours, opening new paradigms in the fight against cancer. The underlying biological mechanism is still the subject of intense research worldwide: having a dedicated preclinical infrastructure is an indispensable prerequisite for advancing in this field.
“FLASH Therapy opens scientific scenarios that have so far been difficult to access in translational research,” explains Rosalba Parenti, Professor at the University of Catania and Scientific Coordinator of Pilot 4.4 of Spoke 4 of the ANTHEM project. “Being able to work on this technology in an environment such as CAPiR – with imaging platforms, animal facilities and an already active partner network – means having the ideal conditions to produce scientifically rigorous and clinically relevant results,” concludes Parenti.
The first field of application on which the research of Spoke 4 is focused is glioblastoma, the most aggressive brain tumour and one of those with the fewest therapeutic options currently available. Researchers are studying how FLASH Therapy may interact with the mechanisms of metabolic adaptation that make glioblastoma resistant to conventional therapies – from chemotherapy to standard radiotherapy – by combining FLASH irradiation with targeted strategies aimed at tumour metabolism. Preclinical zebrafish models have already confirmed alterations in iron and purine metabolism during tumour progression, opening concrete prospects for combined and personalised therapeutic strategies.
The system installed at CAPiR is fully integrated with the Centre’s biology, molecular biology and preclinical research laboratories – equipped with multimodal imaging platforms, animal facilities authorised by the Ministry of Health and specialised laboratories – offering a unique configuration within the national landscape for the systematic and multidisciplinary study of the FLASH effect on advanced biological models.
The acquisition of the FLASH accelerator at CAPiR is not the result of a single project, but of a scientific collaboration established in 2017 involving the University of Catania, the Cannizzaro Emergency Hospital, the Institute of Bioimaging and Complex Biological Systems of the National Research Council (CNR-IBSBC) and the Southern National Laboratories of INFN. Today, this scientific and technological platform confirms itself as competitive at both national and international level, supporting the development and validation of new therapeutic approaches in oncology, neurology and personalised medicine.
“The Southern National Laboratories of INFN bring to this project consolidated expertise in physics applied to medicine,” underlines Giacomo Cuttone, researcher at the Southern National Laboratories of INFN and coordinator of the research group. “The collaboration with CAPiR demonstrates that bringing together fundamental physics and preclinical biomedical research produces results that neither discipline could achieve on its own. And with I-Luce we are ready to go even further,” concludes Cuttone.
Prospects: towards ultra-FLASH with I-Luce
Within the framework of the same Pilot 4.4 of the ANTHEM project, the high-power laser-based acceleration system I-Luce will soon become available at the Southern National Laboratories, enabling work in “ultra-FLASH” mode with electron beams accelerated to even higher intensities. Catania and Sicily are therefore positioning themselves to become a national and European reference hub for the study and application of new tools for cancer treatment, thanks to the unique ability to integrate basic research, preclinical research and clinical application within a single ecosystem.
