New Alpha-Radiation Therapy Offers Hope for Inoperable Pancreatic Cancer

JERUSALEM – April 23, 2026 – A significant milestone was reached in the fight against one of the world's deadliest cancers as the first European patient with pancreatic cancer was treated with an innovative alpha-radiation therapy. The procedure, part of a new clinical trial in France, offers a potential lifeline to a group of patients who currently have no standard treatment path.

On Tuesday, Israeli oncology firm Alpha Tau Medical Ltd. announced the successful treatment at the CHU Grenoble Alpes university hospital. The patient is the first to be enrolled in the ACAPELLA trial, a European study evaluating Alpha DaRT®, a therapy designed to destroy tumors from the inside out. The trial focuses on patients with locally advanced, inoperable pancreatic cancer who have already completed a grueling course of first-line chemotherapy, a population for whom the prognosis remains tragically poor.

Pancreatic cancer is notoriously difficult to treat. Of the estimated 140,000 Europeans diagnosed each year, nearly 30%—or 42,000 people—present with locally advanced disease. Their tumors are entangled with critical blood vessels, making surgery impossible, yet the cancer has not yet spread to distant organs. While the intensive mFOLFIRINOX chemotherapy regimen can hold the disease at bay, it cannot be sustained indefinitely, leaving patients in a therapeutic limbo with an almost certain progression of their disease.

“Over forty thousand Europeans each year are diagnosed with inoperable locally advanced pancreatic cancer, and even if there are some patients who have managed to complete first-line chemotherapy, there remains no established next step, no standard treatment path, and an inevitable progression for the great majority,” said Uzi Sofer, CEO of Alpha Tau. “That is the great unmet need ACAPELLA was designed to address.”

A New Weapon: The Science of Alpha DaRT

At the heart of the trial is Alpha DaRT (Diffusing Alpha-emitters Radiation Therapy), a technology that represents a fundamental shift from conventional radiation. Instead of using external beams of X-rays or gamma rays, Alpha DaRT delivers the fight directly inside the tumor.

The procedure involves a single, minimally invasive session where tiny sources impregnated with radium-224 are inserted into the pancreatic tumor under real-time endoscopic ultrasound guidance. As the radium-224 decays, it releases a series of short-lived daughter atoms. These atoms diffuse a few millimeters through the tumor tissue, emitting highly potent alpha particles along their path.

Alpha particles are the heavy artillery of radiation therapy. They carry immense energy but travel only a very short distance—the width of a few cells. This unique property allows them to inflict catastrophic, irreparable double-strand breaks in the DNA of cancer cells, leading to their swift destruction, while largely sparing the surrounding healthy tissues. This localized precision is particularly crucial in the pancreas, an organ nestled among vital structures.

“The procedure itself is straightforward,” stated Pr. Gaël Roth, the trial's lead investigator and a professor of Gastrointestinal Oncology at CHU Grenoble Alpes. He noted that the single-session treatment is a “meaningful advantage” for patients already exhausted by months of chemotherapy. The ACAPELLA protocol combines the Alpha DaRT procedure with two months of capecitabine, a commonly used oral chemotherapy pill, to attack the cancer from multiple angles.

Building a Global Case Against a Deadly Disease

The ACAPELLA trial is not an isolated effort but a key pillar in Alpha Tau’s ambitious global strategy. It runs in parallel with the IMPACT clinical trial in the United States, which is evaluating Alpha DaRT in a similar patient population. Together, these studies aim to build a robust body of evidence for the therapy's effectiveness.

“With the first ACAPELLA treatment, two multicenter trials - one in the US and now one across Europe - are now advancing simultaneously, marking a meaningful inflection point for Alpha DaRT in pancreatic cancer,” commented Robert Den, MD, Chief Medical Officer of Alpha Tau. The company recently received FDA approval to expand its US trial, allowing investigation of Alpha DaRT in combination with a second major chemotherapy regimen, gemcitabine/nab-paclitaxel.

This dual-continent approach allows the company to gather data across different healthcare systems and patient populations. A key component of the ACAPELLA trial is its embedded immune biomarker program. Researchers will study how the alpha radiation affects the tumor's microenvironment, hoping to confirm preclinical evidence that the therapy can act as an “in-situ vaccine”—unmasking the tumor to the body’s own immune system and potentially paving the way for future combinations with immunotherapy drugs.

A Foundation of Promising Early Results

While this is the first use of Alpha DaRT for pancreatic cancer in a major European trial, the technology has already established a track record of safety and efficacy in other hard-to-treat solid tumors. In studies on recurrent skin and head and neck cancers, Alpha DaRT demonstrated high complete response rates, even in tumors that had previously failed conventional radiation, with a manageable safety profile.

More specific to the current effort, earlier pilot studies for pancreatic cancer in Canada and Israel have yielded encouraging results. Interim data from 41 patients showed a 100% success rate in delivering the therapy, a strong safety profile with few serious adverse events, and promising signals in overall survival. These foundational results provided the confidence to launch larger, more definitive trials like ACAPELLA.

The timing of the first European treatment, just ahead of the prestigious Digestive Disease Week (DDW) 2026 conference in Chicago, provides a platform to discuss this progress with the global gastrointestinal oncology community. The primary goal of the ACAPELLA trial is to confirm the therapy's safety, but secondary goals are what give patients hope: measuring tumor shrinkage, tracking survival, and, most critically, assessing whether the treatment can shrink tumors enough to make them eligible for potentially curative surgery. For a disease where progress has been measured in small increments, the prospect of converting an inoperable case to an operable one represents a paradigm shift. As the ACAPELLA and IMPACT trials enroll more patients, oncologists and patients worldwide will be watching to see if this precise, powerful alpha-radiation therapy can finally rewrite the bleak prognosis for locally advanced pancreatic cancer.