Clinical Trial to Test Safety of Novel Focused Ultrasound Device for Breast Cancer Now Underway in France

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A groundbreaking clinical trial for women with nonpalpable breast cancer is now underway at Institut Bergonié in Bordeaux, France. The pilot study is testing the safety and efficacy of a novel focused ultrasound device, called MUSE, that was designed at built by the Focused Ultrasound Laboratory at the University of Utah in collaboration with Image Guided Therapy in Bordeaux.

Payne Breast CancerPatients in the clinical trial are undergoing focused ultrasound ablation of small (5 to 15 mm in diameter) breast tumors prior to a lumpectomy procedure. A total of fifteen women who have had breast cancer detected by mammography and confirmed through biopsy will be enrolled in the study. Ten of them have already been treated.

The clinical trial is being led by Jean Palussiere, MD, interventional oncologist, Christine Tunon de Lara MD, breast surgeon, and Simone Mathoulin-Pelissier, MD, PhD, methodologist. Dr. Allison Payne and her colleagues designed and built the MUSE system to be as comfortable as possible. “Right now, the treatment time is 70 to 110 minutes,” she said. The MUSE design is truly unique: its MRI imaging coils are integrated into the unit in conjunction with the ultrasound treatment coils. This design allows the device to be used with any MRI system. Furthermore, the patients are awake during the treatment process.

“If this device proves to be safe and effective,” said Suzanne LeBlang, MD, the Foundation’s Director of Clinical Relationships. “It will lay the base work for determining whether focused ultrasound could treat this devastating, and increasingly common, diagnosis noninvasively as an outpatient procedure.”

Patients in Bordeaux who are interested in learning more about this study may contact:

Jean Palussiere, MD
+33 5 56 33 37 50
j.palussiere@bordeaux.unicancer.fr

Christine Tunon De Lara, MD
+33 5 56 33 33 35
c.tunondelara@bordeaux.unicancer.fr.

Learn More About the Study >

Read More About Dr. Payne’s Focused Ultrasound Group at the University of Utah >