Monteris.comWatch a video that demonstrates the procedure.
Two
Cleveland hospitals are embarking on an experimental procedure using
laser heat to "cook" brain tumors, offering hope of improved survival
from one of the most difficult to treat cancers.
Cleveland Clinic on Wednesday was expected to perform a first-ever brain tumor operation using the MRI-guided laser.
The Clinic and University Hospitals Case Medical Center are
collaborating on the first human trials of the device, made by Monteris
Medical Inc. of Winnipeg, Manitoba. The technology uses a thin probe
inserted through a small hole in the skull to deliver heat to tumors,
without harming healthy tissue.
The study is designed for patients with glioblastoma multiforme, the
type of fast-growing, incurable cancer that Sen. Edward Kennedy has.
Most patients diagnosed with glioblastomas die within two years.
The Clinic on Wednesday declined to release information about the
procedure, but said in an earlier e-mail that it was to be performed in
the afternoon. University Hospitals is expected to follow with a second
patient within two weeks. UH also declined to release more information.
Dr. Gene Barnett of the Clinic and Dr. Andrew
Sloan of UH are leading the clinical trial of the laser device. Both
also are paid consultants of Monteris and members of its scientific
advisory board, the hospitals said Wednesday.
About 40,000 people a year in the United States are diagnosed with
malignant primary brain tumors, says the National Brain Tumor Society,
a nonprofit advocacy and research group. An even greater number of
patients develop metastatic brain cancer, meaning the cancer has spread
from another site to the brain.
Glioblastomas are difficult to remove entirely through surgery
because the cancer cells aren't contained in a solid mass, but are
spread throughout the brain. Even when doctors remove the bulk of it,
the small cell clusters set off new tumor growth.
"This is an awful cancer," said Dr. E. Antonio Chiocca, co-director
of neuro-oncology at the Ohio State University Medical Center. "It's
one of those cancers, along with pancreatic cancer, where we don't have
a handle on providing long-term survival."
Treatments for glioblastomas typically include surgery and
radiation. Chemotherapy is also used for some patients, but it has not
been very effective.
New drugs to improve survival are under study in Cleveland and
elsewhere. Local researchers are experimenting with a vaccine and
targeted drug therapies based on tumors' genetic makeup.
Chiocca said new therapies are promising, but "there's been so many treatments that seem successful and they fail.
"I think we have to be hopeful but also realistic," he said.
