As medical technology improves, new treatments and procedures are discovered that will help the different diseases and conditions the human body is susceptible to. Doctors and scientists have been looking for new ways to treat cancer for decades. What used to be an automatic death sentence has changed to be something the majority of people now survive. As new treatments are discovered, more people will survive this dreadful disease. Nanoknife surgery just may be one of these new treatments.
Nanoknife Surgery
While it is referred to as surgery, the nanoknife treatments do not require you to be cut open. Instead, thin needles with electrodes are carefully inserted into the body to surround the tumor. This is all done using computers and imaging to help show the doctor exactly where the tumor is. Electrical impulses are then passed between the electrodes to create openings in the tumor wall. Once the holes are created, the cancerous cells will die. New, healthy cells will move in and grow to repair the damaged area where the cancer was.
Surrounding Tissue
Because the electrodes are precisely placed, and the electrical impulses are aimed directly to and through the tumor, the healthy tissue around the cancer is not affected. This means that other organs, blood vessels, and muscles are not damaged due to the treatment. When the tumor surrounds healthy tissue, the needles can be placed so that the healthy tissue is not in the path of the impulses.
Cancers that Can be Treated
Nanoknife surgery is still being tested for universal use. However, it is currently approved and being used for cancers involving the lymph nodes, kidneys, prostate, liver, and pancreas. If you or someone you love has any of these cancers, and the current treatment does not seem to be working, talk with the oncologist about the possibility of having nanoknife surgery treatments. Hopefully, this technology will prove to be of significant use in many other cancers in the future.
Regardless of the facts and statistics about cancer, it is still very scary. Not only is having the disease scary, many of the treatments can be just as terrifying. Luckily, new methods and treatments are being discovered all the time. Nanoknife surgery is just getting started and it has far fewer side effects than many things that are being done now to treat cancer. Talk with your specialist about nanoknife procedures to find out if your cancer has had a good response to it.