[Editors] MIT aims radar research at breast cancer

[MIT News Office]

MIT News Office
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
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MIT aims radar research at breast cancer
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For Immediate Release
THURSDAY, APR. 15, 2004
Contact: Elizabeth A. Thomson
Phone: 617-258-5402
Email: thomson at mit.edu

OR

Denise Brehm, MIT News Office
617-253-2704
brehm at mit.edu

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CAMBRIDGE, Mass.--A breast cancer treatment based on MIT radar research 
that was originally aimed at detecting space-borne missiles is showing 
promise in the final phase of clinical testing.

Preliminary results to be presented on Wednesday, April 21 at the 9th 
International Congress on Hyperthermic Oncology in St. Louis show that 
women with early-stage breast cancer who received the MIT treatment 
prior to lumpectomy had a 43 percent reduction in the incidence rate of 
cancer cells found close to the surgical margins. This is important 
because additional breast surgery and/or radiation therapy are often 
recommended for patients that have cancer cells close to the edge of 
the lumpectomy surgical margin.

"One of the primary objectives of this randomized study is to 
demonstrate that heat can affect and kill early-stage breast cancer 
cells prior to surgery," said William C. Dooley, director of surgical 
oncology at the University of Oklahoma Breast Institute and principal 
investigator of the ongoing study. "With this focused heat treatment, 
it may be possible for the surgeon to provide better margins for the 
patient and possibly avoid additional treatment procedures and avoid 
recurrence of the cancer."

Since October 2002, 90 women with early-stage breast cancer have 
enrolled in the study, in which microwave energy focused externally on 
the breast is delivered to tumors prior to lumpectomy. The goal is to 
use focused heat to kill tumor cells and reduce additional surgery (see 
earlier story at http://web.mit.edu/newsoffice/nr/2000/fenn.html). The 
current results are based on the 64 women who have completed the study.

Treating cancer with heat is not a new idea, but "researchers were 
having trouble using it to treat tumors deep within the body," said 
Alan Fenn, a senior staff member at MIT Lincoln Laboratory and inventor 
of the technique. Further, it's difficult to deliver the heat only to 
cancer cells and not overheat normal tissue.

The microwaves in the new technique "heat--and kill--cells containing 
high amounts of water," he said. Cancer cells have a high water content 
(around 80 percent), while healthy breast tissue contains much less.

The outpatient procedure uses a single tiny needle probe to sense and 
measure parameters during treatment. Side effects appear to be minimal.

Patients in the thermotherapy group of the current study receive a 
minimally invasive heat treatment prior to surgery and radiation 
therapy, while patients in the control group receive surgery alone 
prior to radiation therapy. Preliminary results indicate that in the 
thermotherapy group, 5 of 30 (16.7%) patients had tumor cells close to 
the surgical margins, whereas in the group receiving surgery alone, 10 
of 34 (29.4%) patients had tumor cells close to the margin.

The women participating in this ongoing clinical trial are being 
treated at the University of Oklahoma in Oklahoma City, Harbor-UCLA 
Medical Center, the Comprehensive Breast Center in Coral Springs, Fla., 
the Mroz-Baier Breast Care Clinic in Memphis, Tenn., and several other 
breast centers in the United States.

Previous Phase II, or dose-escalation, results of the breast cancer 
heat treatment were reported in the February 2004 issue of the Annals 
of Surgical Oncology. The data for breast cancer patients treated in 
the dose-escalation trial were submitted to the U.S. Food and Drug 
Administration to support allowance to proceed with the randomized 
trial currently underway.

Celsion Corp. exclusively licenses the focused microwave thermotherapy 
technology from MIT. The company has developed the clinical 
thermotherapy system and is funding the current clinical studies. The 
Department of the Air Force funded the original MIT Lincoln Laboratory 
research by Fenn.

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