Banner Good Samaritan debuts new treatment for liver cancer
Electrical charge directed at tumor cells, leaves healthy tissue intact
 Using ultrasound, the interventional radiologost has placed the NanoKnife probes around a liver tumor. Short high-voltage shocks will open the pores in the tumor cells, a process that will eventually kill the tumor cells and allow the healthy liver to regrow. |
The procedure, called Irreversible Electroporation, or IRE, uses an electric current instead of heat or freezing to permanently open cell membrane pores in the tumor. Once the cell membrane pores are opened, the tumor cells begin to die.
A minimally-invasive system called a NanoKnife delivers electricity to the target cells. The interventional radiologist will use imaging guidance ultrasound or computed tomography (CT) imaging to insert two or more probes into the tumor area. When the NanoKnife probes are in place, the physician then delivers high-voltage electrical pulses through the tumor. The tumor cells receiving the electrical pulses will open their microscopic pores permanently, which ultimately causes the cells to die, dissolve and be removed by the body’s natural processes.
“IRE is a remarkable new minimally-invasive cancer treatment that kills tumors in a completely new way by using high voltage localized electrical current,” said Kevin Hirsch, MD, chairman, Department of Radiology at Banner Good Samaritan. “The tumor cells are killed but the surrounding framework within the liver is left intact as are blood vessels and bile ducts. This allows the normal liver cells to grow into the area that used to be tumor. IRE expands our options for Interventional Oncology treatments and further enables our collaboration with medical oncologists, surgeons, radiation oncologists, and other physicians to provide the best possible treatment for our patients with cancer.”
Charles Raker, MD, who performed the procedure at Banner Good Samaritan, said, “Electroporation had been used before to temporarily open tumor cells, allowing chemotherapy to enter individual cells and kill them from the inside, but the IRE method does not require any chemotherapy. Using the NanoKnife during an IRE procedure allows us to be more precise and much faster, and the procedure spares the healthy parts of the liver. This results in fewer complications and the patient experiences less pain after the procedure.”
Once the tumor cells die, they are carried away by the body’s natural processes, leaving healthy liver tissue to grow and repopulate the area where the tumor was.
The NanoKnife was recently approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration for surgical ablation of soft tissue.
About Banner Good Samaritan Medical Center
Banner Good Samaritan Medical Center has been providing medical care to Arizona and the Southwest since 1911. Banner Good Samaritan is owned and operated by Phoenix-based Banner Health, a not-organization. The hospital was named to the 2009-’10 U.S.News & World Report’s “America’s Best Hospitals” list for Gynecology, Heart & Heart Surgery and Kidney Disorders. Banner Good Samaritan has been recognized as a Magnet™ facility by the American Nurses Credentialing Center, the highest honor a hospital can earn for its nursing care and practices, and has been named one of the Best Places to Work in the Valley by The Phoenix Business Journal and BestCompaniesAZ in 2007 and 2008 and one of the “Top 100 Hospitals to Work For” by Nursing Professionals magazine.
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Contact:
Banner Good Samaritan Public Relations
(602) 239-4411
