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| |  Anti-Tumour Therapy With Endoscopic Ultrasound May Fight Cancer More Safely, Effectively SAN FRANCISCO -- September 12, 2008 -- A new, investigational technique, may someday allow physicians to directly inject malignant tumours with cancer fighting agents from inside the body, according to study presented at the 16th International Symposium of Endoscopic Ultrasonography (EUS 2008) in San Francisco, California. The technique, which uses a flexible gastrointestinal endoscope with a miniature ultrasound transducer on the tip to guide a small needle directly into a tumour, could prove to be a safer and more effective approach to administering chemotherapy since it allows doctors to deliver therapy right to the tumour and avoid damaging normal surrounding tissues. Injecting drugs directly into the cancer using endoscopic ultrasound (EUS) in combination with systemic chemotherapy to kill cancer cells that have spread may prove to be a more effective approach to some cancers. Curvilinear EUS, allows doctors to operate within the lumen of the gut while at the same time detect, biopsy, and treat lesions and tumours that lie outside the intestinal wall. This technique is particularly useful in patients with pancreatic, oesophageal, and rectal cancer. "Curvilinear endosonography will likely become the dominant technology within the field of EUS," said Robert Hawes, MD, Medical University of South Carolina, Charleston, South Carolina. "The potential for accurate diagnosis using ultrasound-guided biopsy, precise staging with high resolution ultrasound images, and then the enormous opportunity for new therapies with the curvilinear endoscope is why we are focusing this meeting on the use of this instrument alone." Used in conjunction with real-time imaging, EUS can help physicians to detect blood flow in blood vessels in and around tumours as well as detect and biopsy tumours and lymph nodes as small as 3 to 5 mm. This allows doctors to avoid puncturing blood vessels when sampling tissue, get the most accurate view of the cancer and know exactly what stage a cancer is in for optimal therapy for treatment. This could save cancer patients with late-stage disease from going through unnecessary surgery. The EUS will be teaching current applications of curvilinear EUS ultrasonography in order to encourage endosonographers and gastroenterologists to become proficient in these procedures, enhance their techniques, and increase collaboration with oncology surgeons.
SOURCE: Golin/Harris International
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