the surgeon who “burns” the tumor with microwave without putting hand to the scalpel, under the guidance of a simple ultrasound coupled to a PET, indicating with pinpoint accuracy where the malignant cells. Ultrasound used as a weapon to destroy a hard to reach in the operating room cancer, for interventions without even a scar. Or glasses for augmented reality, to see in three dimensions the inside of the patient and move in eliminating tumor with unparalleled accuracy. It is not science fiction, but what happens in the clinic today or that we will find in the hospital in a few, a very few years: the steps of the technology giant are revolutionizing the treatment of tumors and the most important news we talk these days in Milan, during interventional Oncology Sans Frontières Congress which also houses the world’s largest meeting of fusion imaging and augmented reality in interventional procedures.
the glasses to see inside the tumor
the interventional oncology fact is no longer just a promise, came to the clinic for a little over ten years, now allows to operate tumors without putting hand to the scalpel,” cooking “the malignant cells by the heat of the electromagnetic waves with similar results to surgery, but without scars and with lower costs and hospitalizations minimized. Italy has bet from the beginning of this sector and is one of the most advanced countries. No coincidence that the most important international conference on the subject held their own in Milan: the focus is on new technologies, because technical advances are offering unexpected opportunities until a few years ago that seem taken weight from science fiction movies. An example are the 3D glasses for augmented reality Endosight, the result of research of Italian start-up Raw. “These are glasses that through a suitable sensing can literally see inside the patient, allowing the surgeon to move the structures without the use of other methods and real-time – explains Luigi Solbiati, professor of radiology all’Humanitas of Milan and organizer Congress together with Franco Orsi IEO and S. Goldberg Nahun Hadassah Hebrew University of Jerusalem -. This technology can have a positive impact on patients, because it improves safety and accuracy of the interventions making them simpler, but also on the training of doctors: wearing glasses all the people around the patient can see exactly what the surgeon sees, as if they were they themselves operate. Also the glasses allows manual operation as well as to make it better, not to mention the reduction of exposure to radiation for operators. “
the image fusion
the glasses will come in two or three years in the clinic, where he already had made great strides the so-called” fusion imaging “: in practice, merging into a single image of the data taken from too much investigation techniques diverse as ultrasound and PET. “The imaging is now increasingly clear but one thing is to identify a target with PET, something else is to be able to use it as a guide for a biopsy procedure: there are few structures that can afford the expensive equipment needed – says Solbiati -. The problem can be “bypassed” with the fusion imaging: the PET data are associated with those of a simple ultrasound, for example, and the operation is then performed in an ultrasound room but failing to reach the point to be treated with the precision given by PET. With glasses for augmented reality all this will be even easier because just wear them to “enter” in the image produced by the fusion of different diagnostic techniques. ” Next to the futuristic new technology, the conference will also present the results already obtained in the field of oncology Interventional: “The microwaves, for example, can now be used for ablative therapies not only in organs like the liver but also where until now seemed impossible, as in the neck – he tells Solbiati -. It will also discuss the data obtained with ultrasound focused on tumors such as pancreatic difficult to operate and progress of intraoperative radiation therapy, which today you begin to use even in complex situations such as bone metastases: instead of classical radiotherapy, you will make one very focused session, during surgery, with good results. It should be emphasized that we can not cure all patients with interventional or all types of cancer, but the progress of recent years are promising us and now we have no doubt many more weapons against the disease. “
6 July 2016 (amendment 6 July 2016 | 19:49)
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