Did you see last week’s Grey’s Anatomy episode? The surgeons at Seattle Grace use a high temperature chemotherapy treatment to specifically target the unhealthy cancer cells in a patient with lung cancer. Sounds like something straight out of the brains of a Hollywood writer, right?

It turns out that the University of Oklahoma just completed a study of a technique that not only killed larger tumors (1-1 1/2 inches in size) but reduced the need for mastectomies by almost 90 percent. The technique, recently approved by the FDA, is called Focused Microwave Thermography and “uses a modified version of the microwave technology behind the ‘Star Wars’ defense system”. The heat therapy is applied within two hours of chemo and thus was more susceptible to the chemotherapy and shrunk rapidly.

Even more unbelievable, scientists are beginning a clinical trial that they hope will have a similar success rate on tumors up to 5 inches and are planning to study an unexpected by-product of this technique – a boosted immune system that could reduce the chance of cancer recurrence.

We hope to read about this process in the non-fiction aisle soon!