SALINE ENHANCED RADIOFREQUENCY ABLATION FOR LIVER TUMORS

描述（改编自申请人的摘要）：肝癌，尤其是 结肠直肠癌是一个重大的健康问题。在美国，一半 在157，000例新的结直肠癌病例中，将导致转移 肝脏，这将导致超过17,000人死亡。虽然没有那么重要， 健康风险，如结肠直肠转移，肝细胞癌正在 诊断的频率越来越高。目前的实践标准， 治疗肝癌是手术切除，但只有10%的患者是 符合此程序。使用射频的热消融是一种 有前途的替代疗法，但它只能治疗小肿瘤。的 申请人建议继续开发一种盐水增强型射频 用于治疗大肝肿瘤的消融系统。该系统使用射频 加热组织的能量，但这将与同时 通过电极将温盐水注射到组织中 盐水流过细胞外空间并对流热能 深入组织因此，可以显著治疗 肿瘤体积比以前更大。据报道， 产生的热损伤，其体积是产生的热损伤的90倍大， 使用传统的射频电极。因此，该方法将使 经皮热消融治疗用于较大的肿瘤， 增加了适合治疗的患者数量。 拟议商业应用：不可用

DESCRIPTION (Adapted from Applicant's Abstract): Liver cancer, especially colorectal cancer, is a significant health concern. In the United States, half of the 157,000 new cases of colorectal cancer will lead to metastases in the liver, which will lead to over 17,000 deaths. And while not as significant a health risk as colorectal metastasis, hepatocellular carcinoma is being diagnosed with increasing frequency. The current standard of practice for treating liver cancer is surgical resection, but only 10% of patients are eligible for this procedure. Thermal ablation using radiofrequency is a promising alternative therapy, but it can only treat small tumors. The applicants propose to continue development of a saline-enhanced radiofrequency ablation system for treating large liver tumors. The system uses radiofrequency energy to heat tissue, but this would be complimented with simultaneous injection of warm saline through the electrode and into the tissue The injected saline flows through the extracellular space and convects the thermal energy deep into the tissue. Consequently, it would be possible to treat significantly larger tumor volumes than previously possible. The technique has been reported to created thermal lesions whose volumes are 90 times as large as those created with conventional radiofrequency electrodes. The method would therefor enable percutaneous thermal ablation therapy to be used on larger tumors, greatly increasing the number of patients eligible for therapy. PROPOSED COMMERCIAL APPLICATION: NOT AVAILABLE