Multidisciplinary Innovations at the NIH Center for Interventional Oncology
What are minimally invasive, image-guided procedures?
The Center for Interventional Oncology offers new and expanded opportunities to investigate cancer therapies that use imaging technology to diagnose and treat localized cancers in ways that are precisely targeted and minimally or non-invasive.
By use of advanced imaging technologies located at the Clinical Center, including cutting-edge magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), positron emission tomography (PET), and computed tomography (CT) - combined with the capability to use all technologies simultaneously to navigate a therapeutic device through the body, the center's goal is localized or regional treatment and drug delivery, guided by advanced imaging and automated or robotic technologies.
Major program components will include:
- Interdisciplinary training and education in interventional oncology
- Development of new image-guided for methods for personalized drug investigations
- Image-guided "dose-painting"—tailoring drug delivery based on disease location
- Use of 'medical GPS' for tumor biopsy and treatment
- First-in-human investigations involving new drugs, devices, molecular probes, nanoparticles, and targeted therapies
- Interdisciplinary research involving novel technologies in interventional oncology.
The new center is intended to close the gap between diagnosis and therapy, to mesh the physical and biological sciences, and to provide a forum for collaborations among research and patient-care experts in engineering, medical, surgical, radiation oncology and interventional radiology. Educational and training opportunities are part of the program.
The Center for Interventional Oncology is a collaboration involving the Clinical Center, NIH's clinical research hospital in Bethesda, Md., the National Cancer Institute and the National Institute of Biomedical Imaging and Bioengineering.
Bradford Wood, MD, a CC senior investigator, and chief of Interventional Radiology is the founding director of the NIH Center for Interventional Oncology.
For further information, please contact Sandra Wilson, at 301-443-8191 in the Center for Interventional Oncology.