Liver cancer tumor treatment has a new tool! The new microwave ablation treatment introduced by the National Cheng Kung University Hospital is not only shorter and less painful than traditional radio frequency thermal ablation (electrocautery), but also more complete, but the disadvantage is that there is no health insurance coverage at this stage, and the public need to pay out of pocket to use it.
Electrocautery has its limitations, the tumor is close to the blood vessels in the liver
The doctor of the gastroenterology department of the National University of California at Berkeley said, "The malignant tumor in the liver has been treated with a different kind of treatment. At present, for a small number of small tumors, the main electric burn (radiofrequency thermal ablation), the tumor will be heated to high temperatures to kill the tumor cells, but the scope of the electric burn is to burn the needle as the center of the ellipsoidal ball, if the tumor is relatively large, often many times or more needles of radiofrequency thermal ablation.
At the same time, there is a "heat sink effect" in the treatment process, that is, when the tumor is close to the blood vessels in the liver, due to the rapid blood flow, the heat will be taken away, resulting in incomplete ablation of the tumor close to the blood vessel part of the tumor, which makes the therapeutic effect poor, once the tumor cells are not ablated cleanly, it may invade the blood vessels or the tumor proliferation becomes larger, which makes the condition worse. Dr. Zheng Bin said, generally if the tumor does not violate the blood vessels, liver cancer is classified as stage A, but the violation of blood vessels will be directly listed as a more serious stage C (liver cancer according to the severity of the four stages from A to D***), affecting the prognosis.
New generation microwave ablation takes only 5-10 minutes to reduce discomfort
Dr. Bin Cheng said that microwave ablation therapy has been developed for more than a decade, and in the past, the treatment effect is not good or the use of some limitations, but the new "new generation microwave ablation," compared with the traditional electrocautery, the treatment range presents the ball, the scope is wider. The range is wider; although electrocautery can also be used for a tumor from different angles, cauterizing two to three times, and now it can also be used for multi-needle ablation therapy, but the effect is still incomplete, and under the same circumstances microwave may only need one treatment, and the effect is also more complete.
In addition, depending on the location and size of the tumor, microwave ablation usually takes 5-10 minutes to complete the treatment, whereas electrocautery treatment takes 12-30 minutes or more, and the microwave ablation time is much shorter than electrocautery treatment, which also reduces the discomfort and pain during treatment.
While the patients are most concerned about the treatment effect, Dr. Zheng Bin said, from the past statistics, electrocautery treatment due to the heat sink effect and other circumstances, there may be part of the tumor has not been eliminated, and the early tumor one year of the local recurrence rate of about 10% -15%; and microwave ablation treatment, although there are not too many patients, there has not been a repeat *** form, however, still need more treatment of the patient and tracking The first step is to make sure that you have the right amount of money to pay for the treatment.
Tumor diameter of 5 cm or less in 3, liver function is moderate
He said that the microwave ablation treatment is the same as electrocautery, mainly for the tumor in 3 or less, each diameter of 5 cm or less, and at the same time, liver function should be moderate or more; for the blood vessels surrounded by liver tumors, the therapeutic effect is more complete. Since the treatment may affect liver function, this treatment is not recommended if liver function is so poor that the expected survival may only be 3-6 months.
Currently there are fewer medical centers that have introduced this new treatment, and patients still have to pay for it out-of-pocket. Dr. Zheng Bin said, because the health insurance pays for electric burns, most patients will still choose electric burns. The microwave has been in the application for health insurance coverage, if the future can be successfully passed, will be able to benefit more patients.
This article is reprinted with permission from healthcare.com
Topics: microwave ablation, Chengda Hospital, liver cancer, liver tumor