Localised hyperthermia or ablation using two needles, one placed either side of a small breast tumour, totally killed the cancer when a current was passed between the needles; the researchers talked about women having the treatment in their lunch hour.
Doctors at the Karolinska Institute in Sweden are pioneering a new treatment for breast cancer which kills breast cancer cells by heating them up. The procedure uses a targeted electrical current to heat tumours to 70-90c, under local anaesthetic. The treatment can take as little as 10 minutes.
This 'breakthrough' treatment is actually a form of hyperthermia. Heat has long been known to kill cancer cells and tumours, and whole body,Hyperthermia came from the Work of William Coley in 1920 at Sloan Kettering.
Three separate successful studies at Karolinska
Three research studies taking over 90 women in total showed this new treatment worked successfully.
All three separate studies have shown the therapy to be safe and effective. All patients having the treatment have been monitored for two years to date and none has had a recurrence. The treatment is known as Preferential Radio-Frequency Ablation.
Dr Karin Leifland, the radiologist overseeing the research, says the technology could become an alternative to surgery for women with early stage breast cancer.
According to Leifland, It is like boiling an egg. The tumour is heated to such an extent that the cancer cells are killed off, while leaving the surrounding tissue unharmed. The treatment is suitable mainly for women with tumours which are smaller than 2 cm and are contained in a single lump. There is no pain or scar afterwards and within minutes of the treatment, women can leave the hospital and go home or back to work. It is also much cheaper than surgically removing a lump.
"Within five years, this could be a mainstream treatment"
The actual treatment is not expensive, although the scanning required to check women afterwards - particularly MRI scans which are needed because they give much greater detail than other types of scans - are costly. However, it is still a cheaper option than surgery as the woman does not need to stay in hospital overnight or have a general anaesthetic."
Also on this web site, readers will find an article, ’Does Surgery Spread Cancer?’ A number of research studies suggest that it does and several nurses wrote to us after reading the report that sometimes operations to remove tumours in the breast seemed to result in a speeding up of metastases. This new treatment seems to avoid this complication completely.
Localised Ablation works against cancer
At CANCERactive we have been almost a lone voice over the past 8 years in supporting a similar localised Ablation (HIFU) for Prostate cancer. With HIFU, (also called High Intensity Focussed Ultrasound), ultrasound is used to heat solid tumours and melt them away. An overnight stay in hospital is all that is required. Although there has been huge resistance to HIFU in the traditional UK cancer establishment, a recent report in icon magazine about the work of Professor Mark Emberton in London should now convince patients of its effectiveness in treating solid, localised tumours with minimal fuss, and minimal side-effects. Ablatherm is also used around the world for cancers in the kidneys, bone and liver, where they are solid and non-metastasised.
The Karolinska Research disappears
Three years later - the research has disappeared from the Karolinska Website. At first everbody just ask is this Big Pharma at work, or even the surgeon's union! But actually, it might be a simple issue of copyright or patent!!
The Karolinska 'idea' is remarkably similar to the work being pioneered in America and called Nanoknife IRE, where tumours are killed by placing electrodes either side of them. A current is passed across the tumours and punches nano holes in the cell membranes. The cancer cells then lyse and die.