Cancer patients along the Alabama Gulf coast will have another treatment option. U-S-A Health will soon be the first hospital system in the state to use a new technique that uses ultrasound energy to break up liver tumors. Only about one hundred hospitals nationwide are using the new technique. Doctor Natalie Bath is an oncologist with U-S-A Health. She says her department is undergoing a steady build up toward offering this treatment for cancer patients.
“We've gone to training sessions in Minnesota, which is where the histosonics, the company that makes this machine, is based. And then we have additional training that we will do later in August, before our machine arrives,” Dr. Bath said.
Doctor Bath says the alternative to the new ultrasound system is conventional surgeRy which leaves a long scar and requires days of hospitalization. The method is known technically as "histotripsy.” It’s considered a non-invasive medical procedure that breaks down liver tumors without the need for incisions, needles, or long recovery times. The equipment creates bubbles in cancerous tissue which is supposed to destroy tumors. Doctor Bath says the ultrasound method means a patient can go home as soon as they recover from general anesthetic, which is an improvement over other treatments.
"Some of those technologies would include, you know, undergoing surgery in which you would have, you know, a big a big incision and be in the hospital for several days."
Doctor Bath and members of her department are undergoing training on the ultrasound equipment through August. USA Health says patients with liver tumors may be a candidate for histotripsy. This includes primary liver cancer and metastatic liver tumors, such as those from colon, breast, melanoma and pancreatic cancer.
