Development of personalized MR-guided thermo-chemotherapy for breast conserving surgery (CARES)

Project summary

For almost 1 in 3 women with breast cancer, chemotherapy is necessary to shrink the tumour to enable breastconserving surgery. If shrinking fails, the complete breast will have to be amputated. The goal of the CARES programme is to have the chemotherapeutics encapsulated within tiny heat sensitive balls of fat. They also develop a magnetic resonance system to heat the tumour with high accuracy. In combination, these two approaches will ensure that the administered chemotherapeutics will mainly be released within the tumour itself. The higher drug concentration enhances tumour shrinkage, thereby decreasing the need for breast amputations.