Three projects in which TU/e is involved or has the lead have acquired funding worth a total of some 1.5 million euros from STW and KWF to work on new technology to fight cancer.

Technology foundation STW and the KWF anti-cancer campaign announced Thursday that they will be awarding jointly five million euros to eleven projects in the Technology for Oncology research program aimed at better treatment or prevention of cancer. The subsidized projects will be undertaken by teams in which technical and medical researchers collaborate with companies.

Professor Maurice Heemels of the TU/e Mechanical Engineering department is receiving around half a million euros for his project, CONTROL-2-ACT, which he is undertaking with Erasmus University Rotterdam and two industrial partners that are contributing together a hundred thousand euros’ worth of financing. The project focuses on hyperthermia, whereby the local temperature in tumors is increased by up to 43°C. This is no simple task.

The researchers will be developing mathematical optimization algorithms to precisely regulate the heating in the tumor on the basis of MRI temperature images.
Half a million euros will go to the ARGOS project of TU/e professor Peter de With (Electrical Engineering department), 135,000 euros of which comes from the two companies involved.

The project, which also involves the University of Amsterdam, concerns the early computer-controlled discovery of cancer of the esophagus among patients that are prone to contracting this illness. The system targets improving early discovery and treatment, and thus survival.

TU/e is also involved in the PROMETHEUS project, which is led by TU/e alumnus Wilbert Bartels of the University of Utrecht. This project is receiving a total of 446,000 euros to develop technology for the direct treatment of pain that results when the cancer spreads to the bone. The technology involves applying ultrasound, using image guidance, to rapidly heat and kill the tissue, thereby disabling the nerve endings that are locally responsible for the pain caused by the spread of the cancer.

STW and the KWF anti-cancer campaign are themselves investing about 2.6 million euros in the research projects. The 2.5 million subsidy from the TKI Life Sciences & Health doubles the program budget and enables more research projects to get started.