Reactions of organometallic complexes relevant for the ion beam cancer therapy

Ion beam cancer therapy is an emerging field of the radiation oncology. The concomitant combination of radiation with chemotherapy leads to the synergic effect, the enhancement of the therapeutic effect above that expected for individual treatments. In the project, we plan to study secondary processes which play the crucial role in the concomitant therapy. We aim to classify the secondary reaction channels of selected organometallics according to their relevance for the therapy. Reactions of low energy electrons and intramolecular coulombic reactions will be studied in the gas phase and in the solvent environment. The consistency of the results obtained at different experimental setups will be achieved by the use of the same molecular and solvated molecular target sources which will be developed in the project. The results for secondary reactions will be compared to the real radiosensitizing effect on the DNA damage. Our studies on molecular level can improve the future design of drugs for concomitant chemoradiation therapy. Keywords: ionization; organometallics; electron attachment; coulomb explosion; fragmentation; clusters; nanoaerosols