Mayo Clinic Finds Early Success with Laser That (Ablates) Tumors with Heat
Thursday, October 14, 2010
JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — Physicians at Mayo Clinic’s Florida campus are among the first in the nation to use a technique known as MRI-guided laser ablation to heat up and destroy kidney and liver tumors … the physicians say (it) is potentially beneficial against most tumors in the body — either primary or metastatic — as long as there are only a few in an organ and they are each less than 5 centimeters in size (about 2 inches in diameter). Patients also cannot have a pacemaker or certain metallic implants, since the procedure is done inside an MRI machine.
Shabbar F. Danish, M.D., Director, Stereotactic and Functional Neurosurgery and Assistant Professor at UMDNJ-Robert Wood Johnson Medical School (RWJMS) and Robert Wood Johnson University Hospital (RWJUH), used the Visualase, Inc., laser thermal ablation technique to operate on a patient with a recurring brain tumor after two previous surgeries and radiation did not permanently destroy the growth. The technology is the latest addition to RWJUH and RWJMS’s growing expertise in the division of neuroscience. Dr. Danish specializes in the latest in stereotactic neurosurgery, which involves targeting small areas in the brain with techniques used (in) everything from Parkinson’s disease to brain tumors.
Real-Time Magnetic Resonance Imaging–Guided Focal Laser (Ablation) in Patients with Low-Risk Prostate Cancer
Orit Raz, Masoom A. Haider, Sean R.H. Davidson, Uri Lindner, Eugen Hlasny, Robert Weersink, Mark R. Gertner, Walter Kucharcyzk, Stuart A. McCluskey, John Trachtenberg.
Accepted 3 March 2010, Published online 12 March 2010
(Posted on www.europeanurology.com)
Excerpts below:
Abstract
The tumor was identified on MRI. A laser fiber was delivered via a catheter inserted through a perineal template and guided to the target with MRI. The tissue temperature was monitored during laser ablation by MRI thermometry. Accumulated thermal damage was calculated in real time. Immediate post-procedure contrast-enhanced MRI confirmed devascularization of the target. No adverse events were noted. MRI-guided focal laser (ablation) of low-risk PCa is feasible and may offer a good balance between cancer control and side effects.
Destruction of cancerous liver tissue by laser light guided by magnetic resonance (MR) imaging was found to be as effective as traditional surgery for some patients, in a large-scale, 12-year study in Germany.
In the largest study of its type with the longest follow-up, 839 patients at the University of Frankfurt in Germany received MR-guided laser-induced thermotherapy (LITT) for the treatment of liver tumours resulting from colorectal cancer. Between 1993 and 2005, the researchers treated 2,506 liver tumours and tracked survival rates to evaluate the long-term results of the procedure. The average survival rate from the date of diagnosis was 3.8 years, which compares favourably to survival rates after traditional surgery (approximately 1.5 to 5.0 years). The study was presented at the annual meeting of the Radiological Society of North America (RSNA).
FDA Statement