Project description
MR-guided thermotherapy to improve chemotherapy in breast cancer patients
Breast cancer is the most common and deadliest cancer among women worldwide. Most patients with the disease undergo chemotherapy before or after surgery. Chemotherapy is generally applied as a systemic therapy, with frequent cases of severe side effects preventing the administration of sufficient doses for effective treatment. Thermotherapy increases the tumour temperature to 40–43 °C and thus improves perfusion, extravasation and membrane fluidity, leading to an increased targeted drug concentration. Despite this two-fold potential, thermo-chemotherapy is currently not used in breast cancer treatment due to the inability to heat only the tumour area. The main research goal of the EU-funded THERMOGUIDE project is to develop an MR-compatible thermotherapy system for chemo-targeting in primary breast cancers.
Objective
With 1.67 million of diagnoses and 522,000 deaths in 2012, breast cancer is the most common and the leading cause of cancer death among women worldwide. Most patients with breast cancer undergo chemotherapy before or after surgery. Chemotherapy is generally applied as a systemic therapy, with only less than 1% of the administered drugs actually reach the tumour. This causes severe side-effects in normal tissue, and often prevents the administration of sufficient dose for effective cure. Thermotherapy, also known as hyperthermia, that is the increase of tumour temperature to 40-43°C, improves drug delivery at the tumour area and amplifies the anti-tumour effect of the drugs (biological and spatial selectivity). Despite this two-fold potential, thermo-chemotherapy is currently not used in breast cancer due to the inability to heat only the tumour area. Thermotherapy improves perfusion, extravasation and membrane fluidity in the heated region, leading to an increased bioavailability and drug concentration. Furthermore, heating above 41°C inhibits DNA double strand break damage repair and induces an anti-cancer immune response. As for the future potential of thermotherapy, it will be the key for the groundbreaking technology of thermosensitive smart nano-carriers, enabling a focalized delivery of chemotherapy load. Exploiting the full potential of my envisaged approach of improving clinical outcomes for primary breast cancer requires a precise application of thermotherapy. Unfortunately, current state-of-the-art commercial and experimental solutions do not conform to the intact breast, cannot selectively treat deep-seated tumours near the chest wall nor provide the 3D heat steering capabilities to specifically heat large tumour volumes. Therefore I propose this project with the main research goal to develop a novel, MR compatible thermotherapy system for MR-adaptive spatial and biological chemo-targeting in primary breast cancers.
Fields of science (EuroSciVoc)
CORDIS classifies projects with EuroSciVoc, a multilingual taxonomy of fields of science, through a semi-automatic process based on NLP techniques. See: The European Science Vocabulary.
CORDIS classifies projects with EuroSciVoc, a multilingual taxonomy of fields of science, through a semi-automatic process based on NLP techniques. See: The European Science Vocabulary.
- medical and health sciences clinical medicine surgery
- natural sciences biological sciences genetics DNA
- medical and health sciences basic medicine immunology
- medical and health sciences clinical medicine oncology breast cancer
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Programme(s)
Multi-annual funding programmes that define the EU’s priorities for research and innovation.
Multi-annual funding programmes that define the EU’s priorities for research and innovation.
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H2020-EU.1.3. - EXCELLENT SCIENCE - Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions
MAIN PROGRAMME
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H2020-EU.1.3.2. - Nurturing excellence by means of cross-border and cross-sector mobility
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Topic(s)
Calls for proposals are divided into topics. A topic defines a specific subject or area for which applicants can submit proposals. The description of a topic comprises its specific scope and the expected impact of the funded project.
Calls for proposals are divided into topics. A topic defines a specific subject or area for which applicants can submit proposals. The description of a topic comprises its specific scope and the expected impact of the funded project.
Funding Scheme
Funding scheme (or “Type of Action”) inside a programme with common features. It specifies: the scope of what is funded; the reimbursement rate; specific evaluation criteria to qualify for funding; and the use of simplified forms of costs like lump sums.
Funding scheme (or “Type of Action”) inside a programme with common features. It specifies: the scope of what is funded; the reimbursement rate; specific evaluation criteria to qualify for funding; and the use of simplified forms of costs like lump sums.
MSCA-IF-EF-RI - RI – Reintegration panel
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Call for proposal
Procedure for inviting applicants to submit project proposals, with the aim of receiving EU funding.
Procedure for inviting applicants to submit project proposals, with the aim of receiving EU funding.
(opens in new window) H2020-MSCA-IF-2018
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Net EU financial contribution. The sum of money that the participant receives, deducted by the EU contribution to its linked third party. It considers the distribution of the EU financial contribution between direct beneficiaries of the project and other types of participants, like third-party participants.
3015 GD Rotterdam
Netherlands
The total costs incurred by this organisation to participate in the project, including direct and indirect costs. This amount is a subset of the overall project budget.