CCB Seminar: Dr. Raymond Reilly
Title: Radiation Nanomedicines for Treatment of Glioblastoma Multiforme (GBM)
Date: Thursday, April 2nd, 2026
Time: 1:30pm-2:20pm
Room: ABB 165
Host: James Inkster
Abstract:
Glioblastoma multiforme (GBM) is the most common and lethal brain tumour in adults. Despite treatment by surgery combined with external beam radiation and temozolomide chemotherapy, almost all patients develop a recurrence and die from GBM with a median overall survival of 12-15 months. Less than 10% of patients are alive at 5 years post-diagnosis. New therapeutic approaches are thus critically needed to change this outcome. In this presentation, I will discuss a new radiation treatment for GBM that we have been studying in preclinical mouse tumour models termed a radiation nanomedicine. The radiation nanomedicines are composed of gold nanoparticles complexed to radionuclides that emit b-particles (e.g. 177Lu or 198Au) or Auger electrons (e.g. 197mHg and 197gHg) and are infused directly into GBM tumours in the brain by convection-enhanced delivery (CED). In some cases, the radiation nanomedicines are further modified with panitumumab to target epidermal growth factor receptors (EGFR) on GBM cells. SPECT/CT imaging showed that the radiation nanomedicines were strongly confined to the intratumoral infusion site in the brain after CED and did not redistribute to other regions of the brain or other organs. Due to the short range of the b-particles or Auger electrons emitted, the absorbed dose in the tumour was very high (up to 600 Gy) while doses decreased by 100-fold in adjacent healthy brain and by 2,000-fold in the distant brain. No normal tissue toxicity was found by monitoring body weight, complete blood cell counts and blood biochemistry and ex vivo histological examination of the brain. MRI showed that treatment of GBM tumours in the brain in mice by CED of the radiation nanomedicines strongly inhibited tumour growth and improved survival by 2-5-fold compared to control treatments. Our results are promising for application of radiation nanomedicines administered by CED for treating GBM. A recently reported clinical trial of an analogous radiation nanomedicine approach yielded increased survival in patients with recurrent GBM and will be discussed. Supported by NSERC and the Canadian Cancer Society with funds contributed by the World Gold Council.
Biography:
Dr. Raymond Reilly is a Full Professor and Director of the Centre for Pharmaceutical Oncology at the Leslie Dan Faculty of Pharmacy, University of Toronto. He obtained his BSc degree in Pharmacy and MSc in Pharmacy, specializing in nuclear pharmacy and a PhD in Medical Biophysics from the University of Toronto. He completed a residency in nuclear pharmacy at McMaster University Medical Centre and practiced as a nuclear pharmacist in nuclear medicine for several years prior to his academic appointment. Prof. Reilly has published 200 peer-reviewed papers in radiopharmaceutical science with a focus on molecular imaging and targeted radiotherapy of cancer. He has advanced four radiopharmaceuticals from preclinical studies to first-in-human clinical trials with plans for other agents in the next year. His research is supported by the Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR), New Frontiers in Research-Transformation (NFRF-T) program, Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC), Cancer Research Society, Canadian Cancer Society and the Canada Foundation for Innovation (CFI). He has supervised 23 research associates, technicians or post-doctoral fellows, 40 MSc or PhD graduate students and 60 undergraduate students. Prof. Reilly teaches a course on Medical Imaging for Pharmacists and a graduate course on Radiopharmaceuticals.