Combining Microwaves with Chemotherapy Greatly Shrinks Breast Cancer Tumors

Researchers at MIT say that by treating breast cancer with a combination of heat therapy that was developed from their radar research and chemotherapy will make a significant increase in how effective the chemotherapy will be.

There were 15 participants in the clinical trial and they each were given 2 thermotherapy- microwave heat treatments- as well as 4 rounds of chemotherapy before they had their surgery, as well as a control group who only received chemotherapy. The aim was to reduce the size of the tumors to the point where the patient would only have to have a lumpectomy instead of the much more invasive and serious mastectomy. In 14 out of the 15 patients, the surgeons agreed that the tumors and been shrunk enough. The tumors that were treated with both the chemotherapy and a focused microwave heat treatment shrunk close to 40% more than those that only received the chemotherapy.

The microwaves are delivered through two applicators that are placed near the breast and they are able to wipe out the cancerous tissue while at the same time leaving normal tissues alone. They do this by targeting only tumor cells with large volumes of water and ions. The energy from the microwaves passes right through the tumor causing the water molecules to vibrate while at the same time it generates heat from friction. Eventually the cancer cells will reach a temperature of 108 degrees F, which in most cases is enough to kill the tumor.

This latest clinical trial is the forth one they have conducted since 1999. In one Phase 1 safety trial they only used the microwaves and the results were that both small and large tumors were reduced by 40 to 60%. In another one, a Phase-II dose-escalation trial in which they only targeted small tumors, they increases the heat until all of the cancer cells were killed.

In the third study, they treated tumors that were in the early stage, very much like the ones in one before, and found that after they were surgically removed, there were no cancer cells left around the incision. If there had been any left, the odds are the patient would have had to undergo a second operation.