Auger therapy

[3] Due to their low kinetic energy, emitted Auger electrons travel over a very short range: much less than the size of a single cell, on the order of less than a few-hundred nanometers.

The Auger electron emission from the atom is stimulated by radioactive decay, or by external pst (primary system therapy, such as X-ray) excitation.

With a large, localized dose in situ for molecular modification, the most obvious target molecule is the DNA duplex (where the complementary strands are separated by several nanometers).

Mid-range or heavy atoms (from bromine to platinum, for example) which could be induced by sufficiently hard X-ray photons to generate enough electrons to provide low-energy charges in an Auger cascade, will be considered for therapy.

Entering a cell with a low NaCl concentration, the aqua-chloride group would detach from the compound (allowing the missing chloride to link the G-G or A-G bases and bend the DNA helixes 45 degrees, damaging them).

The aqua-Cl rationale, detaching the chloride atom from the cisplatin when it enters a cell and binding them to G-G or A-G adducts in the major grooves of the DNA helixes, could be applied to other metals—such as ruthenium (Ru)-chemically similar to platinum.

Ruthenium is used to coat the anode target of a mammography X-ray tube, enabling operation at any voltage (22–28 kVp) depending on the compressed thickness of the breast and delivering a high-contrast image.

To induce inner-shell ionization with resonant scattering from a moderately-heavy atom with dozens of electrons, the X-ray photon energy must be 30 keV or higher to penetrate tissue in therapeutic applications.