MICROWAVE RADIOMETERS FOR HYPERTHERMIA ANTENNA ARRAYS

DESCRIPTION (Adapted from Applicant's Abstract): The long-term objective of this program is to improve the efficacy of hyperthermia treatments for patients with superficial skin diseases that cover large areas overlying contoured anatomies, such as chestwall recurrence of breast carcinoma or plaque psoriasis, To accomplish this objective, we propose to incorporate microwave radiometers that non-invasively measure subsurface tissue temperature into the Conformed Hypethermia Array Applicator System already in clinical use at the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF) to treat chestwall recurrence of breast carcinoma. The incorporation of temperature sensors into the UCSF system would make it possible to safely heat diseased tissues more uniformly and to higher therapeutic temperatures than is possible now. This would significantly increase the efficacy of the treatments and expand the number of patients with superficial disease that can be treated effectively with hyperthermia. The specific aim of the Phase I program is to develop a fast reading two frequency microwave radiometer and integrate it into the multiple elements of the Conformal Arrays. The goal of subsequent Phase II and III efforts will be to set up the capability for production of low cost custom shaped (patient and site specific) radiometrically controlled Conformal Arrays for heating large area surface disease. PROPOSED COMMERCIAL APPLICATION: The proposed integration of non-invasive temperature sensing, using microwave radiometers, with the hyperthermia antenna array should find wide use in clinics for treating superficial tissue diseases such as chestwall recurrence of breast carcinoma and mild to moderate plaque psoriasis. Celsion Corporation, a Silver Spring, MD manufacturer of hyperthermia equipment which has licensed several MMTP patents, has expressed interest in commercializing the radiometrically controlled Conformal Array applicator and multi-channel 915 MHz power equipment.