Positive Results Seen From Microwave Treatment Prior to Lumpectomy

Researchers continue to report encouraging results from a phase I study in which women with early-stage breast cancer were treated with focused microwave radiation prior to a lumpectomy.

Dr. Hernan Vargas, chief of surgical oncology at the Harbor UCLA Medical Center, said 24 out of 25 patients pretreated with the microwave therapy had "clean" margins after their lumpectomies and required no further surgery to remove cancer cells.

By comparison, researchers said second surgeries are required following lumpectomies in more than 25 percent of all cases to remove cancer cells not excised in the first surgery.

In this technique developed by Celsion Corp., which is performed in an outpatient setting, microwave radiation is focused externally in a highly targeted manner on the breast. Because of higher water and ion content, cancer cells absorb two to four times more microwave energy than healthy tissue. The cancer cells are thus heated and destroyed while healthy tissue remains intact.

A fully randomized Phase II clinical trial of this therapy is currently under way at Harbor-UCLA; Columbia Hospital in West Palm Beach, FL; the University of Oklahoma, Oklahoma City, OK; Comprehensive Breast Center of Coral Springs, Coral Springs, FL; Mroz-Baier Breast Care Clinic, Memphis, TN; Breast Care Specialists, P.C., Norfolk, VA and Pearl Place Breast Center, Tacoma, WA.

"If proven effective, this treatment would mark a significant step forward in the treatment of breast cancer and breast conservation," Vargas told a meeting of the Society of Surgical Oncology in Los Angeles

Other sources: Celsion Corp.