It was a November 2000 diagnosis of stage III cervical cancer that brought Dorothy “Dottie” Smith together with Aaron H. Wolfson, M.D., professor and vice chairman of the Department of Radiation Oncology at the University of Miami Sylvester Comprehensive Cancer Center. At the time, standard therapy for cervical cancer involved external radiation, chemotherapy, and internal radiation, delivered by a device Wolfson says was “very difficult to use, very cumbersome. It caused great discomfort and even pain to patients.”

Working with colleague Xiaodong Wu, Ph.D., associate professor of radiation oncology, Wolfson developed and Wu built what was first called the Wolfson-Wu Vaginal Applicator. It would deliver radiation to women more efficiently, effectively, and comfortably. The device is cylindrical in shape and custom fit to each patient. Over the course of a two- to three-day hospital visit, the physician inserts radiation pellets into a narrow column, which then slides into the applicator. The radiation can be directed exactly where the targeted therapy is needed within the cervix and vaginal cavity, sparing the surrounding healthy tissue. The older method meant several hospital visits.

Smith was the first patient to agree to be treated with the device. Later, about two dozen women took part in clinical trials at UM/Sylvester, and in September 2007 the device won approval from the Food and Drug Administration. UM’s Office of Technology Transfer, which takes technology developed at the University to the outside market, enlisted the help of a Miami-based company to ready the device for the market. BioNucleonics will soon begin marketing what is now called Gynocyte to medical facilities across the nation, giving other oncologists and patients a new weapon in the fight against cancer. In November Smith will mark eight years of being cancer-free.