Development of novel drug-device combinations for chemoembolization of solid tumors and local image-guided delivery of immunotherapy

The Center for Interventional Oncology (CIO)
(http://www.cc.nih.gov/centerio/index.html) 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. The Center for Interventional Oncology (CIO), under the leadership of Dr. Bradford Wood, has pioneered various technologies and procedures using mini-GPS for the human body to combine cutting-edge magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), positron emission tomography (PET), computed tomography (CT), cone beam CT and ultrasound to navigate a diagnostic and/or therapeutic device through the body. Students working at the CIO will gain experience in a translational research environment within the NIH Clinical Center (CC). The CIO is looking for motivated students for the following project:

Transcatheter arterial chemoembolization (TACE) is a minimally invasive procedure to treat patients with tumors that are not amenable to surgery. For TACE, embolic agents (i.e. materials that block blood flow) and chemotherapy are delivered into arteries that directly supply blood to a tumor. This project focuses on characterizing novel drug-device combinations consisting of CT image-able, drug-loaded embolic beads for TACE of hepatic tumors. Our lab is particularly interested in targeted, local delivery of immunotherapies and molecular targeted drugs using embolic agents or in situ-forming drug-eluting gels for intratumoral injection. The prospective BESIP student will have the opportunity to develop novel drug-bead or drug-gel combinations and to characterize drug loading and release kinetics. The student may also seek to characterize the imaging characteristics of these drug delivery vectors using CT or ultrasound to inform tumor spatial drug distribution.