Finding the right waves to cut breast cancer
A team at IIT-Ropar is trying to use radio waves to treat this form of cancer, which is the most common cause of cancer deaths among women in India.
The International Agency for Research on Cancer, a World
Health Organisation agency that decides on the carcinogenicity of a
vast list of things, lists radio waves — those emitted by mobile phones,
for example — as a “possible carcinogen”. However a team of researchers
at the Indian Institute of Technology, Ropar (IIT-R), in Punjab, are
trying to use radio waves to treat breast cancer, the most common cause
of cancer deaths among women in India.
Radio
waves are a big chunk of the electromagnetic spectrum and indispensable
for the working of several of our communication devices from radios to
satellites. However, the higher the frequency of electromagnetic waves,
the more energetic they are and the greater their chances of being
harmful to the body. To tune radio waves for therapy, scientists employ
the low- and medium-frequency range. Over the years this insight has
been used to alleviate minor ailments such as neck and back pain but
with improvements in how these waves can be finely controlled, there’s
now increasing attention to using it to treat cancer.
In
radiofrequency ablation treatment or RFA, cancerous tissue is burned
off by poking a needle electrode through the skin into the tumour.
Determining the right places to insert the needle needs high-resolution
images of the infected region that are taken through a range of
instrument such ultrasound, computed tomography (CT) or magnetic
resonance imaging (MRI). The high-frequency electrical currents are
passed through the electrode, creating heat that destroys the cancer
cells.
According to the American Radiology
Association, RFA is an effective treatment option for patients who might
have difficulty with surgery or those whose tumours are less than one
and a half inches in diameter. The success rate for completely
eliminating small liver tumours is greater than 85 per cent.
According
to Dr. Ramjee Repaka, an associate professor at IIT-R, RF treatment for
cancer is still an emerging area of research. It works better for liver
cancer simply because liver tissue is relatively smooth and homogenous
and therefore easier to image. He and his associates are more ambitious
and want to tackle breast cancer, where cells are often clustered
together and have vague boundaries, which makes successful detection
extremely challenging.
“Breast tissue is far more
difficult to model and so there’s been little attention paid to it so
far,” says Dr. Repaka. In preliminary investigations in his lab so far,
the researchers have tested these waves on synthetic gels that mimic
breast tissue. “The challenge is to find the optimum temperature and the
duration to safely target the radio waves,” he adds, “the next steps
are to attempt this in cell lines (real tissue).”
Were
such therapies to be successful, they could emerge as a competitor to
conventional radiation and chemotherapy to treat cancer. Because they
employ low-frequency waves, RF treatment would be far less likely to
damage healthy tissue and also avoid the unpleasant side effects of such
therapy.
Dr.
Repaka may be helped by a report, this week, in the journal PLOS One. A
team of researchers consisting of mathematicians from the Madras
Christian College, Trinity College, Dublin and Christian Medical
College, Vellore, claim to have applied a technique — usually used for
detecting damaged surface areas on underwater marine structures such as
bridge piers, offshore wind turbine platforms and pipelines — to
distinguish healthy breast cells from infected ones.
While
this work would typically be done by an expert team of pathologists,
the researchers report having made a crucial step forward in automating
the process while maintaining accuracy.
Professor
Joy John Mammen, from the Christian Medical College, Vellore, India,
said in a statement: “Detection of cancerous nuclei in high-grade breast
cancer images is quite challenging and this work may be considered as a
first step towards automating the prognosis.”
There
aren’t yet any reliable estimates of how affordable such treatment is
likely to be given that they are still in preliminary stages of testing.
Dr. Repaka was optimistic that it would be possible
to ensure that patients would need fewer sittings or longer treatment
than conventional radiation therapy.
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Labels: Breast cancer, destroys cancerous cells, high frequency electircal currents, radio waves
posted by G S Iyer at 12:08 AM
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