18/11/2011

Second board meeting of IT'IS USA

IT'IS USA held its second board meeting on November 18, 2011.

Present were:

• Quirino Balzano, PhD
• Niels Kuster, PhD
• Boris Pasche, MD, PhD
• Gal Shafirstein, D.Sc.
• Dominik Szczerba, PhD
• Davnah Payne, PhD

Updates:

• Prof. Balzano reported on the project on dielectric spectroscopy recently initiated at the University of Maryland and co-funded by IT'IS USA. The project is progressing and preliminary results look promising.
• Dr. Szczerba from the IT'IS Foundation reported on the progressed achieved with the simulation platform Sim4Life and with the EM, thermal, and mechanical simulations. The applications of interest range from modeling hyperthermia to blood flow, HIFU, and tumor growth.
• Dr. Pasche reported on the progress made in elucidating the mechanism of EMF-induced metastasis inhibition in breast cancer and hepatocellular carcinoma. The publication describing those experiments has been accepted for publication in the British Journal of Cancer (Costa et al., BJC, 2011). Additional evidence for the applicability of the method was collected in a clinical study. Based on Pasche's results, EMF exposure can successfully be used for the treatment of hepatocellular carcinoma, breast, brain, ovarian, and pancreatic cancer.
• Gal Shafirstein reviewed his work at the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences. He presented his work on laser thermal and photodynamic therapy for head and neck cancer.