Radiation dose enhancement of gadolinium-based AGuIX nanoparticles on HeLa cells

Radiation dose enhancement of high-Z nanoparticles is an active area of research in cancer therapeutics. We present a study that characterizes the radiation dose enhancing effects of gadolinium-based AGuIX nanoparticles on HeLa cells. Our in vitro clonogenic survival assays showed an average dose enhancement of 1.54 × for 220 kVp radiation and 1.15 × for 6 MV radiation. These results are on par with the dose enhancement seen in other studies with gold nanoparticles. Furthermore, gadolinium nanoparticles are significantly less expensive than gold, indicating that these nanoparticles may be useful for clinical radiation therapy.233