1: Breast Cancer. 2005;12(4):317-21.
Links
Magnetic resonance-guided percutaneous microwave coagulation therapy for liver metastases of breast cancer in a case.
Umeda T, Abe H, Kurumi Y, Naka S, Shiomi H, Hanasawa K, Morikawa S, Tani T.
Division of General Surgery, Department of Surgery, Shiga University of Medical Science, Seta, Tsukinowa-cho, Otsu, Shiga 520-2192, Japan.
Real-time magnetic resonance (MR) imaging enables the application of percutaneous microwave coagulation for high-risk patients with metastatic liver tumours. The tumours, local vessels and bile ducts can be observed clearly in three-dimensional sections and a sufficient surgical margin can be confirmed on the MR image even during the coagulation procedure. MR-guided percutaneous microwave coagulation therapy is effective for treatment of not only primary liver tumours but also metastatic breast cancers in the liver, which are not diffuse but discrete, and difficult to treat with only chemo-and endocrine therapy. We report a 44-year-old Japanese woman who underwent modified radical mastectomy for right breast cancer (T1c N0 M0 Stage I). Three years after the operation, she developed two metastatic liver tumours and was treated by MR-guided percutaneous microwave coagulation, achieving a complete response (CR) without any recurrence for 15 months as of the present. The most beneficial aspect of MR-guided percutaneous microwave coagulation is its safety. It is only minimally invasive and can be repeated. This therapy, therefore promises to prolong the disease free period. Additional clinical trials will be valuable to delineate the effectiveness and safety of MR-guided percutaneous microwave coagulation therapy for controlling the liver metastases of breast cancer.
PMID: 16286913 [PubMed - in process
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NOVEMBER 4, 2005
* Penn Researchers Study the Use of Ultrasound for Treatment of Cancer
* Initial Results in Mice Show this Promising New Treatment May Disrupt the Vessels Supplying Blood and Nutrition to Tumors
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(Philadelphia, PA) - For the first time, ultrasound is being used in animal models - to treat cancer by disrupting tumor blood vessels. Researchers at the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine completed a study in mice in which they used ultrasound both to see a tumor’s blood perfusion and then to treat it with a continuous wave of low-level ultrasound. After three minutes of treatment at an intensity similar to what is used in physiotherapy ultrasound (about 2.5 watts), researchers observed that the tumors had little or no blood supply.
“We used an ultrasound intensity higher than that used for imaging, but much lower than the high intensities used to ablate tissue. And we saw that this new use had a profound effect on shutting down the blood flow to the tumor and reducing the growth of the tumor in mice,” said Chandra Sehgal, PhD, Director of Ultrasound Research in the Department of Radiology at Penn and the study’s principal investigator.
“We wanted to study this use of ultrasound because we observed that some of these newly formed vessels created by tumors are very weak in nature, and if you turn on low-intensity ultrasound vibrations you can disrupt the blood flow through these vessels,” explained Andrew Wood, DVSc, PhD, a co-investigator of the study and based in the University of Pennsylvania School of Veterinary Medicine.
Sehgal adds, “This approach is in keeping with the latest study of cancer treatment utilizing antiangiogenic and antivascular therapies, in which we look for ways to stop the growth of the vessels supplying blood and nutrition to the tumors, rather than develop methods to kill the tumor cells themselves.”
For years, ultrasound has been used for clinical imaging and for therapeutic action in physical therapy. But now, Sehgal explains, “These results are extremely encouraging. They raise the possibility that, in the future, treatments with ultrasound either alone or with chemotherapeutic and antivascular agents could be used to treat cancers.”
The results of this study were published in the October 2005 issue of “Ultrasound in Medicine and Biology.” You can access it on-line at:
www.sciencedirect.com (search for the UMB journal and then access Volume 31 - October 2005, article 15 “The Antivascular Action of Physiotherapy Ultrasound on Murine Tumors”).
This study was funded in part by the National Institutes of Health
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Only used in liver cancer so far as far as I know (but that doesn't mean much):
Hospital Information
H
OU MEDICAL CENTER FIRST WITH PROMISING LIVER CANCER TREATMENT BREAKTHROUGH
OU MEDICAL CENTER became the first and only hospital in the nation to provide a promising treatment for primary liver cancer, when doctors administered radiochemicals to an Oklahoma man. The innovative treatment raises a patient's five-year year survival rate from 13 percent to 60 percent, according to hospital hematologist/oncologist Howard Ozer, MD, PhD. It uses a specially prepared lipiodal drug manufactured in France and shipped via air transport to Oklahoma.
Promising treatments for primary liver cancer have been rare, Ozer said. Primary liver cancer is cancer that originates in the liver rather than spreading to the liver from some other part of the body. This treatment has been used successfully in other parts of the world where the disease is more prevalent, such as France and Hong Kong.
The treatment - targeted*radiochemotherapy using I-131 and the drug lipiodal*- was performed by the*OU Physicians nuclear medicine specialist Charles Arnold, M.D., and interventional radiologist Timothy Tytle, MD.* I-131 is a radioactive agent. Lipiodal is a fatty acid derived from poppy seed oil.
Ozer said lipiodal is oil much like cooking oil. These agents coupled together are introduced into the liver via a catheter through the hepatic (liver) artery. Lipiodal can be viewed on a CT scan.* It distributes itself throughout the liver and introduces the radioactive agent there. Because of the oil, the I-131 tends to stay in the liver and kill residual cancer cells. Patients receive I-131 radiochemotherapy under local anesthetic and stay in the hospital for about 48 hours before getting back to their regular lives. They continue to have their health monitored regularly.
The patient who received the treatment yesterday is an active, 81-year-old male whose liver tumor was removed in an earlier procedure by OU MEDICAL CENTER surgeon Larry R. Pennington, MD.* Ozer and other hospital physicians collaborated to find the best follow-up treatment.* Then they applied for and received an investigational new drug license from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) in order to perform it.
"When we researched different types of treatment," Ozer said, "this was by far the most promising. That's why we went to such great lengths to make it available. When we think doing so will help, we'll search the world for a treatment. Better yet, this new treatment doesn't have the side effects that accompany chemotherapy. Long-term effects are non-existent.
"This cancer protocol was designed for one man in Oklahoma. It was put in place because of our determination to provide innovative treatments for all Oklahomans battling cancer."
Pennington has already identified another Oklahoman who might benefit from the new treatment, so it's expected that the physicians will apply for an expanded license to make the treatment available as a clinical study to multiple patients.
"Bringing innovations that offer such great hope is one reason why OU was singled out by the National Cancer Institute," Ozer said. "We want to find more therapies that will help more patients. Our intention is to become the only NCI-designated comprehensive cancer center in the region by 2005."
Earlier this year, the University of Oklahoma landed a five-year, $1 million National Cancer Institute (NCI) planning grant - one of two awarded this fiscal year.* Criteria for NCI designation as a comprehensive cancer center are so rigorous that to date only 39 U.S. medical institutions have earned the designation.* The next closest NCI-designated comprehensive cancer center is in Houston, Texas.
Jessica...
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