The primary treatment for both malignant and benign tumors is surgery. For malignant tumors chemotherapy and radiation are the most frequently used adjuvant treatments. Pre-induction chemotherapy (chemotherapy prior to surgery) is sometimes used to shrink the primary tumor before surgery and when used in breast cancer often will allow a mastectomy to be downstaged to a lumpectomy.
While surgery has proven to be effective in cancer treatment, it is expensive and invasive, frequently requiring lengthy hospital stays for patient recovery. A critical measure of surgical success is the complete removal of the tumor with surgical margins testing negative to tumor cells upon pathology review. Radiation therapy is believed to kill microscopic disease remaining near the tumor site while chemotherapy is relied on to control systemic disease. For the majority of metastatic cancer patients, surgical treatment is not an option.
With the number of cancer cases steadily increasing throughout the world, a less invasive, less costly way of treating primary and metastatic tumors is desired. Modern diagnostic imaging modalities and new interventional methods have set the stage for bringing less invasive methods to the field of oncology treatment much as imaging has enabled the diagnosis and minimally invasive treatment of coronary arteries with balloon catheters and drug eluting stents.
For more on how imaging is enabling minimally invasive procedures to replace open surgery visit: Medical Imaging.org
Combining state of the art real time imaging with interventional access to solid tumors offers the possibility to non surgically treat, or ablate, the tumor mass. Improved minimally invasive methods are being developed to treat both primary and metastatic solid tumors. Most of the FDA approved ablative methods to date use devices that create thermal injury to tissue when used in conjunction with a percutaneous approach to the lesion. The energy sources used are typically RF (radiofrequency), laser, microwave energy or high intensity focused ultrasound.
While thermal ablative techniques such as radiofrequency ablation (RFA) or laser ablation are rapidly gaining acceptance in the treatment of inoperable tumors, incomplete treatments are common since there is no reliable method to monitor the treatment zone during the ablation. A treatment that does not encompass the entire tumor will result in recurrent growth of the tumor, usually within one or two years. Tumor recurrence also occurs following conventional surgical resection but rates of 2-5% are common following surgery while recurrence with RFA has been reported at rates from 9% to 40%. Ablative techniques will be held back from full adoption as long as the treatment zone cannot be monitored during the ablation. Abla-Tx has solved the treatment monitoring problem and will enable improved clinical results for thermal ablation methods used in conjunction with CT and x-ray imaging.
