NIH Center for Interventional Oncology Offers new Venue for Research Collaborations
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A new Center for Interventional Oncology has been established at the National Institutes of Health Clinical Center (CC). It offers new and expanded opportunities to investigate cancer therapies that use imaging technology to diagnose and treat localized cancers in ways that are precisely targeted and minimally or non-invasive.
The center is a collaboration involving the CC, NIH's clinical research hospital in Bethesda, Md., the National Cancer Institute, and the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute.
The new center is intended to provide a forum for and encourage collaborations among research and patient-care experts in medical, surgical, and radiation oncology and interventional radiology, noted John I. Gallin, M.D., CC director. "The Clinical Center provides an exceptional environment for this type of collaborative research and patient care."
The new center's goal is localized treatment and drug delivery by use of advanced imaging technologies located at the Clinical Center, including cutting-edge magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), positron emission tomography (PET), and computed tomography (CT) - combined with the capability to use all three technologies simultaneously to navigate a therapeutic device through the body.
The localized therapies use a thin needle or sound waves to ablate (or cook) tumors and to enhance drug delivery. Energy sources include high-intensity focused ultrasound, freezing, microwaves, and radiofrequency, Wood said.
Researchers will also expand investigations into electroporation -- the use of electricity to make cells more open to targeted drug delivery. Image-guided drug delivery will be developed, which will allow combining use of nanoparticles, ablative devices, and advanced imaging and navigation.
Major program components will include:
• Interdisciplinary training and education in interventional oncology
• Development of new image-guided for methods for personalized drug investigations
• Image-guided dose-painting-tailoring drug delivery based on disease location
• Use of 'medical GPS'
• a system by which small micro coils are built onto invasive devices (like needles or catheters or cameras) and inserted into a patient to define, target, and track the position of tumors during thermal ablation (cooking tumors with needles) for tumor biopsy and treatment
• First-in-human investigations involving new drugs, devices, molecular probes, nanoparticles, and targeted therapies
• Interdisciplinary research involving novel technologies in interventional oncology.
David Bluemke, MD, PhD, director of Clinical Center Radiology and Imaging Sciences, will head the Center for Interventional Oncology steering committee that comprises two NCI appointees and one each from NHLBI and the CC.
The center is a collaboration involving the CC, NIH's clinical research hospital in Bethesda, Md., the National Cancer Institute, and the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute.
The new center is intended to provide a forum for and encourage collaborations among research and patient-care experts in medical, surgical, and radiation oncology and interventional radiology, noted John I. Gallin, M.D., CC director. "The Clinical Center provides an exceptional environment for this type of collaborative research and patient care."
The new center's goal is localized treatment and drug delivery by use of advanced imaging technologies located at the Clinical Center, including cutting-edge magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), positron emission tomography (PET), and computed tomography (CT) - combined with the capability to use all three technologies simultaneously to navigate a therapeutic device through the body.
The localized therapies use a thin needle or sound waves to ablate (or cook) tumors and to enhance drug delivery. Energy sources include high-intensity focused ultrasound, freezing, microwaves, and radiofrequency, Wood said.
Researchers will also expand investigations into electroporation -- the use of electricity to make cells more open to targeted drug delivery. Image-guided drug delivery will be developed, which will allow combining use of nanoparticles, ablative devices, and advanced imaging and navigation.
Major program components will include:
• Interdisciplinary training and education in interventional oncology
• Development of new image-guided for methods for personalized drug investigations
• Image-guided dose-painting-tailoring drug delivery based on disease location
• Use of 'medical GPS'
• a system by which small micro coils are built onto invasive devices (like needles or catheters or cameras) and inserted into a patient to define, target, and track the position of tumors during thermal ablation (cooking tumors with needles) for tumor biopsy and treatment
• First-in-human investigations involving new drugs, devices, molecular probes, nanoparticles, and targeted therapies
• Interdisciplinary research involving novel technologies in interventional oncology.
David Bluemke, MD, PhD, director of Clinical Center Radiology and Imaging Sciences, will head the Center for Interventional Oncology steering committee that comprises two NCI appointees and one each from NHLBI and the CC.
