NanoKnife offers the potential for effective treatment of various cancers. (Nanoknife.com)
A unique surgical technique, commonly called NanoKnife, uses electricity to zap hard-to-reach prostate-cancer tumors and promises fewer side effects.
Prostate cancer is the most common cancer for men, other than skin cancers, yet it can be difficult to catch early. Treatments for it typically are blunt, including removal of the prostate, and can cause incontinence and impotence.
The NanoKnife procedure, known as irreversible electroporation, usually takes only 45 minutes to an hour, and doctors have called it “amazingly simple and quick” and a “game-changer.” It targets the tumor specifically and mostly leaves unscathed the rest of the prostate, including the nerves needed for bladder control and erectile function.
“It’s an amazing treatment, so quick, and it means we can reach tumors that are beyond where the knife can reach,” British surgeon and University College London professor Dr. Mark Emberton told The Daily Telegraph.
The procedure is still going through clinical trials to determine its safety and effectiveness for prostate-cancer treatment. NanoKnife also is being studied for use against bile-duct, liver, pancreatic and other cancers.
The Food and Drug Administration approved NanoKnife for “the surgical ablation of soft tissue” in 2008.
“We don’t know if it’s going to work for everybody,” Dr. Srinivas Vourganti, a urologist, told a publication for Chicago’s Rush University about NanoKnife’s effectiveness as a prostate-cancer treatment. “But it could give many men an appropriate form of control. And if it comes back, we have more options. So, we’re really excited about that.”
Nanoknife isn’t an actual knife. Surgeons locate the tumor using an ultrasound or CT scanner and insert between two and six needles, or probes, through the skin and into the tumor. “Then the NanoKnife passes an electric current through the needles, damaging the cell membranes of the cancerous cells, which then shrink and die,” states King Edward VII’s Hospital in London.
It is outpatient surgery.
“This offers us a new class of therapy. It’s a completely new way of destroying cells,” Emberton said. “The beauty of it is that it’s such a simple technique to train surgeons in. That makes it a game-changer.”
— Douglas Perry
dperry@oregonian.com
@douglasmperry
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