Radio-wave hope for cancer treatment

Source: Agencies | May 29, 2009, Friday |

Print Edition

IN a study that could dramatically reduce the need for surgery to prevent esophageal cancer, doctors in the United States reported on Wednesday that they can significantly cut the risk of a tumor by using radio waves to scorch suspicious-looking cells.

Barrett's esophagus, in which repeated bouts of acid reflux have caused the cells just above the entrance to the stomach to become abnormal, is found in one in every 62 Americans.

When it causes a tumor, the five-year survival rate is less than 15 percent. Esophageal cancer kills about 14,000 people in the US annually.

Dr Nicholas Shaheen of the University of North Carolina School of Medicine and colleagues tested 127 patients with Barrett's, giving them either the wave treatment, known as radio°?frequency ablation, or a sham procedure.

Abnormal cells disappeared in nearly 78 percent of the patients who received the heat treatment compared to 2 percent of people in a control group.

World

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Radio-wave hope for cancer treatment

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