San Diego, February 6: UC San Diego Medical Center and Moores UCSD Cancerdefine Center, are the only hospitals which offer microwave ablation, a revolutionary treatment to cure liver tumors.

The incidences of liver cancerdefine have risen significantly in the United States in the past few years. Experts have associated liver cancer with the epidemic of hepatitis and cirrhosis, a degenerative disease of the liver.

Microwave ablation is a new tumor ablation technique. Ablation is the process of removing a substance from the surface of the body by vaporization, chipping, or other erosive processes. It is a minimally-invasive treatment.

In microwave ablation, with the help of imaging guidance the tumor is located and is exposed to electromagnetic waves released by microwave generator.

Marquis Hart, MD, transplant surgeon at UC San Diego Medical Center, said, “A liver tumor can be removed in many way. Now, patients at UC San Diego have a new option called ‘microwave ablation.’

“Simply put, we zap and destroy liver tumors with heat derived from microwave energy. This is an important alternative, especially since the majority of liver cancers cannot be partially removed and not all patients are transplant candidates.”

Microwave ablation includes procedures like transplantation, partial surgical removal of the liver, chemotherapy, radiationdefine, or ablation (the destruction of abnormal tissue with heat from radiofrequency waves), high frequency ultrasound, freezing, or alcohol injection.

Microwave technology employs intense heat to treat tumor either directly through the skin, or through a small laparoscopic port or an open incision. The tumor is traced with the help of ultrasound guidance or a computed tomographydefine (CT" class="glossary-indicator">define) scan.

In the next step, using a thin antenna that emits microwaves the tumor is pierced. The microwaves cause the cancer cells to heat up and the temperature of the cells rises above 60 degrees Celsius resulting in the death of cancer cells within 10 minutes.

Hart remarked that microwave ablation approach can rapidly and precisely remove the tumor. The advantage of this technique is that it can be used effectively to kill multiple tumors simultaneously. “This method appears to be more efficient than other ablation techniques, which translates to better tumor destruction and less time for the patient under general anesthesiadefine.”

According to the researchers, microwave ablation man also be used to cure lung, kidney, and bone cancer along with liver cancer.