gms | German Medical Science

27th German Cancer Congress Berlin 2006

German Cancer Society (Frankfurt/M.)

22. - 26.03.2006, Berlin

Thermotherapy using magnetic nanoparticles, a new approach in cancer therapy

Meeting Abstract

  • corresponding author presenting/speaker Andreas Jordan - Magforce Nanotechnologies AG, Berlin, Deutschland
  • Peter Wust - Charité Universitätsmedizin Berlin, CVK, Klinik für Strahlenheilkunde
  • Klaus Maier-Hauff - Bundeswehrkrankenhaus Berlin, TE Neurochirurgie
  • Manfred Johannsen - Charité Universitätsmedizin Berlin, CCM, Klinik für Urologie
  • Regina Scholz - Magforce Nanotechnologies AG, Berlin
  • Uwe Gneveckow - Magforce Nanotechnologies AG, Berlin
  • Burghard Thiesen - Charité Universitätsmedizin Berlin, CVK, Klinik für Strahlenheilkunde
  • Norbert Waldöfner - Magforce Nanotechnologies AG, Berlin
  • Roland Felix - Charité Universitätsmedizin Berlin, CVK, Klinik für Strahlenheilkunde

27. Deutscher Krebskongress. Berlin, 22.-26.03.2006. Düsseldorf, Köln: German Medical Science; 2006. DocOP439

The electronic version of this article is the complete one and can be found online at: http://www.egms.de/en/meetings/dkk2006/06dkk549.shtml

Published: March 20, 2006

© 2006 Jordan et al.
This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/deed.en). You are free: to Share – to copy, distribute and transmit the work, provided the original author and source are credited.


Outline

Text

The biological effectiveness of heat in treating cancer is known for decades and many of the corresponding molecular mechanisms are understood. Although many successful clinical trials have been conducted, hyperthermia is not yet well established in clinical routine. Thermotherapy using magnetic nanoparticles, also termed ”MagForce Nanotherapy” is a new cancer therapy, in which a magnetic fluid is directly injected into a tumor and subsequently heated in an alternating magnetic field. This new approach, which allows precise heating of almost every part of the body, is one of the first clinical applications of nanotechnology in cancer therapy. The magnetic fluid MFL AS consists of superparamagnetic iron-oxide nanoparticles in aqueous solution with an iron concentration of 112 mg/ml. The iron-oxide core (diameter 15 nm) is covered by an aminosilane type shell. In more than 15 years of basic research we demonstrated the advantages of the new technique in numerous preclinical studies, e.g. in a rat model of prostate carcinoma we reduced tumor growth by 88 % after combined thermotherapy and radiation and in a rat brain tumor model we demonstrated an up to 4.5-fold prolongation of survival after sole thermotherapy. In these studies, application of the nanoparticles led to the formation of stable deposits, thus allowing for repeated magnetic field treatments without repeated applications of the particles. Starting in March 2003 we conducted three clinical trials on the MagForce Nanotherapy. The world’s first feasibility trial on this new approach was performed with 14 glioblastoma multiforme patients. All these patients received stereotactic injection of the magnetic fluid into the tumor. Further feasibility studies enrolled 10 patients with pre-treated prostate carcinoma, another main focus in the clinical use of thermotherapy using magnetic nanoparticles, and 21 patients with local relapses of different tumor entities (e.g. cancer of the rectum-, ovarian-, cervical-carcinoma and sarcoma). Thermotherapy was applied as hyperthermia in combination with radio- or chemotherapy and also as thermoablation (>46°C). All clinical trials demonstrated, that the new thermotherapy is effective and can be applied without complications. The instillation of the nanoparticles and the heat treatments were tolerated without or with only minor side effects depending on the tumor location. The follow-up showed encouraging results for severe oncological diseases and there are several strategies available to further improve the effectiveness of the treatment, for example elevation of the magnetic field strength or increase of the amount of magnetic fluid. An efficacy study with 65 patients suffering from recurrences of glioblastoma multiforme or anaplastic astrocytoma started in Jan. 2005.