Dielectric Properties of Matched Tissue Samples From Thoracic Malignancies and Corresponding Normal Tissues

Thoracic malignancies represent a significant burden of disease in the US population. Lung cancer, for example, is the most common cause of cancer mortality in the US among both men and women and long-term survival remains poor with a 5-year survival rate less than 20%. There is significant need for additional therapeutic options for all stages of patients. Esophageal cancer, although less common in the US with an incidence of 1% among new cancer diagnosis, also has significant mortality with a similar survival rate of about 20% at 5 years. There are a variety of additional thoracic malignancies that contribute to morbidity and mortality of the US population including mesothelioma and other pleural based cancers and thymoma. All of these thoracic malignancies pose unique challenges that have limited the effectiveness of current therapies, necessitating the development of new and innovative approaches.

Tumor treatment fields (TTF) have recently been established as a new and effective treatment for a variety of solid tumor malignancies. TTF provides a unique ability to deliver targeted and sustained therapy via an LCR meter. TTF has shown promise for some of the most aggressive malignancies such as glioblastoma and therefore should be considered for aggressive thoracic malignancies as well. In order to develop a TTF protocol that is both efficient and efficacious, the electric field properties of target tumors must be understood. Although well established for some tumors, the complete electric properties of thoracic malignancies as they apply to TTF is still not fully understood. The proposed project is to address this gap of knowledge.

Our plan is to analyze 3-5 tissue probes acquired from 30 patients with a variety of thoracic malignancies. Tissue will be acquired in the operating room and will be analyzed immediately. The investigators will plan to acquire tissue from each type of malignancy including: lung cancer, esophageal cancer and pleural based tumors. After acquisition of data, the investigators will assess the data and continue to acquire patients to obtain significant estimates of overall tissue properties in each type of tumor. The investigators will offer all patients at our center undergoing resection of thoracic malignancies the opportunity to participate in the study. After undergoing an informed consent process in accordance with IRB approval, patients with be formally enrolled. The LCR meter used for electric property analysis of the tissue will be positioned on and secured to a movable cart so that it can be brought to the operating room for rapid tissue analysis following surgical excision of the tumor. Impedance measurements will be collected on multiple sections of excised tissue and will be translated into dielectric properties. All tumor electric property data will be stored securely and remain anonymous of patient identifying data.