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Details of Grant 

EPSRC Reference: GR/M52526/01
Title: FOCUSED ULTRASOUND INDUCED OCCLUSION OF TUMOUR VASCULATURE
Principal Investigator: ter Haar, Professor GRt
Other Investigators:
Leach, Professor MO Rowland, Dr I
Researcher Co-Investigators:
Project Partners:
Royal Marsden Hosp/NHS Trust
Department: Physics
Organisation: Institute of Cancer Research
Scheme: Standard Research (Pre-FEC)
Starts: 01 June 1999 Ends: 28 February 2003 Value (£): 186,303
EPSRC Research Topic Classifications:
Med.Instrument.Device& Equip.
EPSRC Industrial Sector Classifications:
Healthcare No relevance to Underpinning Sectors
Related Grants:
Panel History:  
Summary on Grant Application Form
Minimally invasive tumour treatments that reduce the need for surgical intervention in the management of cancer are actively being sought. High intensity focused ultrasound is currently being used in clinical trials for the thermal ablation of soft tissue tumours. This technique is time consuming for large tumour volumes. We therefore wish to exploit our finding that focused ultrasound can occlude blood flow in vivo for the treatment of large tumours, for which there is currently no standard treatment. New blood vessel development is required for solid tumours to grow. Over 40 anti-angiogenic drugs are currently under clinical trial. These drugs either prevent the formation of new vessels or are designed to destroy them once formed. They do not target existing large vessels. The combination of these drugs with focused ultrasound occlusion of mature vessels may therefore provide a successful therapeutic strategy. The aim of this project is therefore to develop the technology to allow magnetic resonance guided targeting of mature tumour blood vessels and to investigate the efficacy of the combination of focused ultrasound and anti-angiogenic drugs in tumour control. Precise methods of targeted vascular occlusion may also be of benefit in other fields of medicine such as obstetrics.
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