St. Stamford Modern Cancer Hospital Guangzhou introduces Nano-Knife— “A Latest Medical Breakthrough on Cancer Treatment”
Nano-knife is a new cutting-edge tumor ablation technology that uses irreversible electroporation technology to precisely target and kill hard-to-reach tumors at the cellular level. series of high-voltage electricity through a set of needles that is inserted directly into and around the tumor causes changes in the membrane potential of the cell wall (a delicate balance of positive and negative charge) and as a result creates holes in the membrane wall of the cell. These holes force the cell to commit suicide, a process known as apoptosis.
Clinical application of Nano-knife
Nano-knife got its approval for clinical application from the US FDA approval in October 2011, and has received the European CE certification. Recently, more than 100 Cancer Hospitals worldwide has begun its clinical application. Chinese Ministry of Health has approved the technology for the treatment of tumors in June 2015.
Technical Advantages of Nano-knife
1. Short Ablation Time
For solid tumors with a diameter of about 3cm, the ablation time would take not more than 5 minutes. Two or more probes release a series of 90 microsecond ultrashort pulses creating an electrical field between them and inducing cell death, and the treatment time would take less than a minute. Even if there are three or four overlapping ablation zones, at the end of the whole treatment, if physical condition is good, patients can be discharged on the same day or the next day. 2. Blood vessels, nerves and other important components in the treatment area are retainedAnother feature of Nanoknife ablation is that the nearby nerves, ducts and blood vessels remain unharmed. The important structures such as hepatic artery, hepatic vein, portal, intrahepatic bile duct of all those who have undergone nano-knife treatment of liver tissue were well protected. 3. The non-thermal ablation
Nano-knife ablation mainly uses electric pulse to breakdown the cell membrane and does not generate heat in the process, while the traditional ablation approach uses heating or cooling to denature protein, thus leading to destruction of various proteins and DNA which are beyond repair. Once the ablation area is larger than the vessels, the heat will be taken away by the bloodstream, causing the surrounding ablation to be incomplete, leading to relapse. 4. Treatment is thorough and has clear boundary Another advantage of Nano-knife is that it can completely ablate a tumor regardless of tumor location, size and shape. The boundaries of the Nano-knife are clear with demarcation of only 1-2 cell units. Treatment and non-treatment area are clearly differentiated; there is no "gray areas" to reduce the risk of recurrence. 5. The treated area are quickly be substituted with normal cells, returning to normal function
The traditional ablation treatments using temperature denatures tissue proteins, followed by coagulation necrosis, the entire area of ablation which has undergone necrosis will cease to exist. Nano-knife is the induction of tumor cell apoptosis. It makes use of immune system wherein the phagocytes remove the apoptotic tissue, and promotes normal tissue regeneration and repair. 6. The effect can be monitored real-time Nano-knife treatment can be performed under the guidance of imaging equipment like ultrasound, CT or MRI. Under the guidance of the imaging device, the nano-probe can be positioned on the ablation target area and the size of the ablation zone can also be monitored realtime, allowing doctors to observe changes in the surrounding tissue ablation zone to check on the progress of the treatment and as a safety measure to contribute to its rapid post-operative recovery. 7. Nano- knife can be adapted to more complex diseaseIn the traditional ablation methods, once the tumor is close to large blood vessels near the bile duct, pancreatic duct, hepatic portal vein and other hazardous area, it cannot be used as a treatment. In addition, for to prostate cancer or for tumors near the vertebral ridge, the traditional ablation therapy can easily lead to nerve damage causing paralysis, loss of function of the sex organ and so on. As for the nano-knife, it does not damage the nerves and vessels, thus for cases like the one mentioned, it can serve as a safe and effective treatment.
An International JCI private hospital, St. Stamford Modern Cancer Hospital Guangzhou-China has introduced the 18 minimally invasive treatment technologies, which offer alternative options aside from having traditional surgery, radiotherapy and chemotherapy that are known to cause more harm than cure for patients due to their side effects. Through the years, St. Stamford Modern Cancer Hospital Guangzhou Tumor Center has remained to be on par with international standards. It focused on clinical individualized precision treatment as well as introducing the most advance cancer treatment, the Nano-knife therapy, which could offer a more sophisticated treatment for cancer patients worldwide.