Hot needle method treats lung cancer in 30 minutes

A new “two-in-one” lung cancer therapy using a hot needle is intended both to fight the tumor and to diagnose cancer aggressive type.

The development was called radiofrequency ablation.

This method allows patients with hard-to-reach tumor sites to avoid invasive and rather destructive surgical interventions.

The method includes the tumor “burning” by using the hot needle with simultaneous neoplasm sampling for biopsy and the cancer aggressive type testing and the metastasis likelihood. So, this method is effective both in diagnosis and in lung oncology treatment.

Radiofrequency ablation allows to treat the disease under local anesthesia for a few minutes, and the time required to obtain the biopsy results is reduced by about two weeks or even days. Moreover, the unique needle allows to reach tumors that were previously considered as those which hard-to-reach and almost impossible to treat.

Sometimes a surgical biopsy, further surgical tumor removal and subsequent irradiation sessions were  almost insuperable and complicated procedures for the treatment of lung cancer. So repeated radiation sessions, due to damage to healthy tissues, led to the fact that further radiation therapy was discontinued for  some patients. This dramatically reduced their chances of survival.

Positive effect of the hot needle therapy is that it can be safely done several times.

During the procedure, a small 1.5 mm needle is introduced between the ribs in the area closest to the tumor. Then a needle with a diameter of 0.9 mm is introduced into it for taking a sample of the tumor to be sent for analysis. Then a third microscopic needle with an electrode on its tip is introduced. This needle is connected to the generator, which delivers radio frequency energy to the tumor’s “heart”, destroying it with a temperature of 60 to 70 °C. The whole procedure is carried out under close monitoring of CT scanner.

Source: EUROLAB