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 three technologies simultaneously to navigate a therapeutic device through the body, the new center’s goal is localized treatment and drug delivery.

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 provide a forum for and encourage collaborations among research and patient-care experts in medical, surgical, and 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 (CC), NIH’s clinical research hospital in Bethesda, Md., the National Cancer Institute (NCI), and the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute (NHLBI).

David Bluemke, MD, PhD, director of CC Radiology and Imaging Sciences, will head the Center for Interventional Oncology steering committee that comprises two NCI appointees and one each from NHLBI and the CC. Bradford Wood, MD, a CC senior investigator, is chief of the new center.

Read the full Press Release

For further information, please contact Lucy Okello, at okellol@mail.nih.gov or 301-443-8191
in the Center for Interventional Oncology.

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