With breast cancer being the leading cause of cancer-related death in women, and the current treatment modalities having unwanted physical and psyhosocial side effects, a team of UM researchers are seeking to design a hyperthermia system to be used in conjunction to these treatments to increase their efficacy and minimise the damage done to human tissue.
Methods of treatment for breast cancer, namely radiotherapy and chemotherapy are, through this study, being complemented by hyperthermia.
In simpler terms, the temperature of the body region affected is increased up to 45°C and directed at malignant cells. This process does not kill the malignant cells but it inhibits the DNA double strand break repair mechanism. This renders them more susceptible to lower doses of chemotherapeutic agents and radiotherapy, potentially reducing damage to the patient’s healthy tissue.
This is done via microwave frequencies, which are a source of non-ionising radiation and can be used to deliver energy to the targeted tissues by antennas or waveguides. This transfer of energy increases the temperature within the tissue.
Spread over the course of three years, the project involves designing the antenna system and testing it through experimentation and computational simulations.
Jeantide Said Camilleri, a UM PhD student who is helping design this system, says “this study is the first of its kind in Malta, and its potential application could have long-term benefits for cancer patients”.
Hyper4B is funded by the ALIVE Charity Foundation through the Research, Innovation and Development Trust (RIDT) of the University of Malta.
The project is led by Prof. Charles V. Sammut from the UM’s Faculty of Science, with the participation of Mr Gordon Caruana Dingli, Head of the Breast Clinic and Clinical Chairman of the Department of Surgery at Mater Dei Hospital, as well as Dr Lourdes Farrugia and Dr Iman Farhat, members of the Electromagnetics Research Group at the Department of Physics.