Focus
Dr. Tempany’s research involves multidisciplinary applications of radiologic imaging, including image-guided therapy, MR-guided focused ultrasound surgery (MRgFUS) interventions, and MR-guided surgical procedures. These techniques are currently being used in patients with breast cancers, uterine fibroids, as well as tumors of the gastrointestinal tract, prostate, brain, bone, and liver. Future technologies will include procedures guided by molecular imaging and gene therapy using positron emission tomography (PET).
Background
A native of Dublin, Ireland, Dr. Tempany graduated from the Royal College of Surgeons in 1981. After completing an internship and residency in internal medicine, Dr. Tempany came to the United States in 1988 to pursue a residency in diagnostic radiology at Loyola University of Chicago. In 1990, she finished a fellowship in magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) at the Johns Hopkins Medical Institutions, Baltimore, MD. She subsequently joined the faculty at Johns Hopkins University as associate director of MRI and was then recruited to Brigham and Women’s Hospital in 1991. Two years later she was appointed Director of Body Magnetic Resonance Imaging in the Department of Radiology. In 1997, she was named Clinical Director of Magnetic Resonance Imaging. Currently, Dr. Tempany is a professor of radiology at Harvard Medical School. At Brigham and Women’s Hospital she has multiple roles. She is Director of Clinical Focused Ultrasound in the Department of Radiology, Clinical Director of the National Center for Image-Guided Therapy (NCIGT) based at Brigham and Women’s Hospital, and Co-director of the Imaging Platform of the Biomedical Research Institute.
Research
Dr. Tempany conducts her clinical research in the Radiology Department of Brigham and Women’s Hospital, in collaboration with the Prostate Image-Guided Therapy Group, as well as within the Surgical Planning Laboratory, which provides infrastructure and technologies that support computerized image processing. “This whole process begins with the acquisition of imaging data from the Brigham’s sophisticated imaging modalities, including MRI, CT, PET, fMRI, and SPECT,” Dr. Tempany explains. “Preliminary imaging data are analyzed, processed, interpreted, and segmented, which means that specific pieces of information are delineated by computer and analysts.” Once delineated, either manually or by computer, these images are co-registered, allowing the data to be fit together like a 3D jigsaw puzzle. All the aspects of the image data and views are combined within a multiparametric multimodal computerized data set, which can be manipulated by the computer and used in the operating room to precisely direct the surgical or radiologic procedure. Among the tools available to clinicians are computerized surgical anatomy atlases, which can be used in conjunction with surgical simulation software.
Laboratory
The MRI research section has better than 100 individuals who are working on different aspects of magnetic resonance research. The prostate group, alone, chaired by Dr. Tempany, has 20 team members. Moreover, her efforts are multidisciplinary and include not only radiologists and radiation oncologists, but also surgeons, medical oncologists, computer scientists, physicists, mathematicians, and both software and hardware computer engineers. This large and labor intensive sophisticated effort is at the forefront of cancer research and treatment.
Funding
Dr. Tempany’s research is funded through the National Cancer Institute, the National Center for Research Resources, as well as private, corporate, and philanthropic sources.
Collaborators
Dr. Tempany enjoys a great number of collaborations within the Longwood Medical Area and in the New England region, as well as around the country and internationally. In particular, partnering with the Focused Ultrasound Research Laboratory has provided a unique opportunity for conducting dedicated research into the clinical application of this very exciting non-invasive thermal ablation method. In 2005, this group, along with Dr. Elizabeth Stewart from the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology at Brigham and Women’s Hospital, collaborated on the first FDA-approved MRgFUS device in the US.
Importance of Being at the Brigham
Dr. Tempany believes “the importance of being at the Brigham lies in the multidisciplinary nature of research at the hospital. The Brigham has an outstanding clinical and research faculty and an imaging facility with sophisticated and expensive resources that are not available everywhere. The department administration, specifically, and the hospital administration, generally, have established an infrastructure that is absolutely supportive and essential for cancer research. At the end of the day, people working together as a team is what really makes it all possible.”
Future
With the proposed availability of a new Advanced Image-Guided Operating Suite (AMIGO) for delivering image-guided therapy, equipped with MRI, PET/CT, and a cyclotron, Dr. Tempany looks forward to expanding the application of molecular imaging to image-guided therapy. “In many different cancers, short-lived isotope probes created in the cyclotron, such as carbon-11 and other specialized probes, can be used to examine signaling pathways and to develop new noninvasive evaluations and therapies,” Dr. Tempany explains. “Further,” she adds, “the integration of this technology into the Focused Ultrasound program is of utmost importance and has the potential to make significant advances in tumor treatment. This highly useful, if expensive, technology is justified by the furtherance of research and clinical advancements in oncology.”
Selected References
Fennessy F, Tempany C. MRI-guided Focused Ultrasound Surgery of Uterine Leiomyomas. Academy of Radiology. 2005;12:1158-1166.
Szot Barnes A, Haker S J, Mulkern R, So M, D’Amico A, Tempany CM. Magnetic Resonance Spectroscopy-Guided Transperineal Prostate Biopsy and Brachytherapy for Recurrent Prostate Cancer. Urology. 2005;66:1319.
Mulkern RV, Szot-Barnes A, Haker SJ, Hung YP, Rybicki FJ, Maier SE, Tempany CMC. Biexponential characterization of prostate tissue water decay curves over an extended b-factor range. Mag Res Imaging. 2006;24:563-568.
This page was last modified on 7/7/2007
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