[原创]微波杀癌新技术

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New firm aims to microwave cancer
Needle-like probe would target tumors
By KATHLEEN GALLAGHER
kgallagher@journalsentinel.com
Posted: Feb. 7, 2008

A newly formed Madison company aiming to use its technology to destroy certain cancerous tumors has snagged $4.5 million of venture capital, along with a former high-level GE Healthcare executive.

NeuWave Medical Inc. started in January under the leadership of Laura King, who previously ran GE Healthcare's $1.2 billion interventional division.

It got the venture capital - a type of funding usually raised by later-stage companies - from Venture Investors and several individuals in a deal that closed in late January, said King, NeuWave's president and chief executive officer.

Although NeuWave looks like an embryonic company at first glance, the reality is the two University of Wisconsin-Madison professors who founded it invested about $280,000 of their own money and landed a federal grant to build a "very robust" prototype and conduct more than 100 animal trials, said Scott Button, managing director at Venture Investors in Madison.

"Now it's a matter of putting the appropriate infrastructure in place to take the device through FDA approval," Button said.

NeuWave's initial goal is to bring to market in 2010 a minimally invasive microwave technology that would compete with surgery or thermal procedures for destroying liver, kidney and lung tumors. The company's patented probe would be inserted into a patient's skin like a needle to deliver microwaves to destroy the tumor.

There are similar technologies on the market that use radio frequencies to heat or cryogenic techniques to cool and destroy tumors, and a microwave technology will likely come to market this year, King said.

NeuWave's technology has potential to reach larger tumors from the tip of a needle-like probe without requiring, like radio frequency, pads to ground the current, she said.

The microwave technology may also be less invasive and provide a faster recovery time with fewer side effects, King said.

"What differentiates this from others is when you bring technical and medical people together, they're able to think about the tools at their disposal in conjunction with how they'll be used by physicians and benefit patients - to me, that's where the magic is," King said.

NeuWave's technology grew out of a collaboration between two UW-Madison professors: Fred T. Lee Jr. and Daniel van der Weide.

Lee is an interventional radiologist and has been a pioneer in using thermal energy to destroy tumors.

King said he has at least 10 patents and is a founding member of Madison-based Cellectar Inc., a Madison company developing a radioactive material to track and destroy tumors that raised $13 million last month from venture and angel investors.

Van der Weide is a professor in the electrical and computer engineering department who runs an interdisciplinary group that explores new ways of using high frequencies.

"NeuWave is the culmination of the great research and interdisciplinary interaction that occurs at the UW. Laura's involvement lends tremendous credibility to the company and speaks to the enormity of the market opportunity for NeuWave," Button said.

There's a worldwide market of about $70 million that's growing at about 15% to 20% a year, King said.

But the company's expertise in minimally invasive microwave technology should produce further opportunities in cardiac and cosmetic procedures as well as other areas, Button said.

NeuWave has licensed one patent from the Wisconsin Alumni Research Foundation and has another 20 in place or pending, King said.