MICROWAVE TREATMENT OF LOCALIZED PROSTATE CANCER

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Prostatic cancer is the second leading cause of cancer mortality in U.S. men. The proposed program is directed at developing novel instrumentation and procedures that will safely produce uniform therapeutic hyperthermic temperatures in prostate glands to improve the survival rates in patients with localized prostate cancer. The instrumentation will broadcast microwave power into the prostate gland from two separate microwave balloon catheters -- one in the urethra and one in the rectum. The prostate gland is one of the few organs treatable with microwave hyperthermia from more than one direction. The proposed approach will do this to provide more uniform heating than possible from either applicator alone. A new type of urethral microwave balloon catheter will be developed in which the microwave applicator and the expansion catheter are a single integrated assembly improving antenna efficiency and reducing catheter diameter for patient comfort. The urethral dilation under heating will also provide treatment for BPH at the same time -- creating a biological stent. The rectal microwave balloon catheter will be of a completely new design in which the expansion balloon will force the antenna element against the rectal wall proximate the prostate thereby compressing it and improving treatment efficacy. PROPOSED COMMERCIAL APPLICATIONS: Prostatic cancer affects many men and the overall treatment costs are extremely high. The proposed approach has the potential for providing an adjuvant treatment that may be performed on an "out-patient" basis to improve the survival rates in patients being treated with external beam or implant therapy radiation. The new type of catheters developed during the proposed program and the associated hyperthermia equipment will be important commercial products.