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Microwave hope for breast cancer
 Many breast cancer patients have a breast removed |
Trials are set to begin on a technique using microwave beams which could reduce the number of breast cancer patients who have to have a mastectomy.
But researchers need to find women who are willing to test the new therapy - but then still have their breast removed to see if it has worked properly or not.
The surgical removal of one or more breasts is still very common for treatment of breast cancers.
This not only causes immense and lasting distress to the patient, but can lead to huge bills for reconstructive treatment.
The microwave procedure used a finely focused beam which heats up and kills tumour cells.
The trial is being organised at two centres in the US, in Palm Beach, Florida, and the Harbor UCLA Medical Centre in California.
Dr Robert Gardner, at Palm Beach, said: "Based on the animal data, this is a technique that will work, and has the potential to replace surgery for some patients who develop breast cancer."
'Angels' needed
However, Dr Gardner is hoping to recruit 10 "angels", as he calls them, who are planning to have a mastectomy and who have a single, invasive breast tumour three centimetres or less in diameter.
After the treatment, the doctors will still have to perform a mastectomy to make sure the tumour is dead.
Dr Lesley Walker, of the Cancer Research Campaign, says that the potential of the new technique was exciting, although she warned it would be some time before UK doctors would be able to use it routinely.
She said: "There is continued international interest in this field, not least because people feel if it can be made to work, it will be a far gentler treatment."
She said that the treatment was also being investigated for use on other types of cancer, such as cancer which has spread to the liver
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