NanoKnife (Page 1 of 2)

Gavin.....thanks for posting this.  Amongst others,  Dr. Curley, at MD Anderson, is working with this technology.  It was reported on one of the news shows in the U.S.  I have great hope for it to be a successful in treating cancer although, I believe, it will be a few more years, possibly five, before human trials will show the results we are hoping for. 
Best,
Marion

Hi Marion and Ron,

Thanks for that. I hope that this treament will get some more research and that it shows some great results for patients. The more treatments there are out there the better for all.

Best wishes,

Gavin

Hi everyone,
Has anyone heard anything recent about nanoknife or has done it? My dad is stage 3, and we just found out the tumor got bigger. The doctors brought up Nanoknife and they want to do it on my Dad within a month in a half, and he is scared. ( At UCI Medical Center)
Any information/stats would be great. Plus since it got approved by the FDA would it be covered my insurance/medical
Thanks everyone, Gaby

Hello everyone, they did the nano knife today on my dad and his doctors were successful in removing part of the tumor. We still have to wait to fully see how well nanoknife worked. Anything is great because his cancer was spreading. Plus my dad looks good after a 6hr surgery.

Gaby...that is very encouraging news.  If it worked for our Lisa then there is no reason to think it won't do the same for your Dad.  Tons of good wishes are heading your way.
Hugs,
Marion

We have some experience with the NanoKnife at UM, and I have been watching carefully for any experience from other centers. It is an ablative technique, similar to radiofrequency ablation (RFA) or microwave ablation. It's reported advantage is that it does less damage to surrounding normal structures (bile ducts, blood vessels), thus potentially allowing us to treat centrally located liver tumors, or tumors in the bile duct outside the liver, that are hard to treat with RFA.

Early experience suggests that it is safe and relatively easy to use either in the OR or percutaneously (through the skin) using ultrasound guidance. However the early recurrence rate in limited studies is a bit discouraging. More work is needed to figure out how to best use this therapy. However, given its relative safety it may allow us to treat some tumors we have not been treating well to date.

How it compares to radioembolization or chemoembolization is not clear. My personal opinion is that radioembolization has the most encouraging response rates of the liver-directed therapies.

Happy to discuss further. Feel free to email me any questions.

Chris Sonnenday

Both are clever marketing names - the technologies used are very different.

CyberKnife = robotic radiosurgery system. It is a shame that surgery is used in the name of this technology, because it is not a surgical procedure or operation. It is a technique of providing radiation therapy that uses image guidance and a robotic delivery system in an attempt to deliver the radiation beams more accurately. Most state of the art centers use the technique of stereotactic radiotherapy (image-guided, precisely targeted radiation), and the CyberKnife is one form of that treatment.

NanoKnife = ablation technique using irreversible electroporation to kill tumor cells. As I described above it is an ablation technique like radiofrequency ablation (RFA) - i.e. you stick a probe into the tumor and deliver energy to kill the cells, in this case by disturbing the cell membranes by brief electrical pulses. The advantage of this treatment as opposed to RFA or other ablative techniques is it is more focused energy without as much toxicity to surrounding normal tissues. We are very early in our experience with this treatment and awaiting to see its effect in a disease like cholangiocarcinoma.

CJS

Thank you Lisa, and Chris for all of the information. My Dad is still currently in recovery and is on liquids only. I had another question, my dad doesn't want to eat anything because he feels everything is swollen inside,is that normal, and part of the heeling process?

Thanks for the link Helen and that would be great if you could let us all know if you hear anything else from the person that contacted you.

For those in the UK, I found these links -

http://www1.imperial.ac.uk/departmentof … ertherapy/

http://guidance.nice.org.uk/IP/838

Best wishes,

Gavin

Briola, I am so very sorry to hear about your dad. There are Meds for vomiting, have you called the ONC? Has the ONC mentioned Hospice? You can start with Hospice a year ahead and they will do everything they can to make Dad more comfortable. The ONC can put in the order for Hospice and they come like in a day and get all set up. At any rate someone needs to notify the ONC of what is going on with Dad if he is not aware. Best wishes and I hope you can get him to a comfortable
place.

Thank you Lainy and Marion, my Dad is currently at UCI Medical Center, but we were told there is not much they can do anymore. The doctors also said he wont be able to take chemo because he is too weak. I will ask about Hospice nurse. I didn't know about any assistance we could get. My DaD can't even close a water bottle and three weeks ago he was playing with my niece.

Thank you Lainy so much. I was feeling helpless I didn't know what else I can do for my Dad. I already asked arround in the hospital and will meet with someone tomorrow morning. Thank you once again for taking your time to give me information it's hard when no one arround you understands or knows what the cancer is that is affecting our loved ones.