NanoKnife

My sister had a successfull Nano knife procedure for an inoperable tumor on head of pancreas.  It was last October and she is still alive.  It was done by Dr. Robert Martin in Louisville.  It was an extremely difficult surgery and has been a hard recovery but she is alive and it has been close to a year now and all the scans have remained with no growth!  Her dr.s in St. louis all thought she was crazy and even put her in hospice saying the cancer had spread to her stomach.  Dr. Martin was the one who said it had not and to take her out of hospice.  She looks amazing right now and is doing good.  Still has some issues she is battling but minor compared to the alternative!  He gets my vote..  she is a "survivor"!

On Mar 05, 2011 2:13 PM shelby1 wrote:

Hi, still looking for any and all information on succesful NanoKnife procedure for inoperable tumor on head of pancreas. Found many stories back to March and Sept. 2010 but no "survival" stories. Centers who performed the NanoKnife do not broadcaast long tern effects or status of those who had NanoKnife. This is a big decision to make but I cannot find any real people who have survived more than 3 months. Anybody know anything about Nanoknife???? Options now are medical marijuana, curcurmin, GTX, Folfirinox, Hedgehog, Gemzar/Abraxane so NanoKnife seems most promising but not supported really anywhere. Appreciate info on any of these options. Thanks- Pat

My sister had this procedure done in an open surgery and it was successful!!!  It has almost been a year, she is alive and the scans all show no growth of the cancer!!  Since it kills it the tumor is there on the scan but it is not growing!  It is a very difficult surgery and the tumor has to be under a certain size.  she had it done by Dr. Robert Martin in Louisville.  Hers was on the artery and inoperable.  Her Dr.s thought she was crazy and advised against it yet they had no other options for her.  It works!! hope this helps someone because this is how we found out about it for her was searching the internet.. 

Hi,

I am a pancreatic cancer survivor.  I had nanoknife surgery, by Dr. Robert Martin at Univ. of Louisville, on Jan 16,2012 and right now have no signs of cancer in the CT scan.  I was first diagnosed with inoperable Stage 3B on Feb. 16, 2010.  I had the standard 5FU and radiation as the first treatment, but this did nothing to stop the tumor growth.  Next, I was in a clinical trial at Vanderbilt Univ. for 8 months and then in a clinical trial at Dallas Baylor Sammons Cancer Institute for 7 months.  Both trials stopped the tumor progression for awhile. Then I discovered nanoknife here on the Cancer Compass blog in Dec of 2011.  By this time I am Stage 4A.   I immediately sent my CT scans to Dr. Martin and he said I was a candidate.  To me nanoknife is a miracle machine.   I would probably not be here writing on this blog site if it were not for nanoknife.  If anyone is told they have inoperable PC, I would immediately contact on nanoknife oncolgy surgeon (unfortunatley very few doing pancreatic cancer).   I feel great and had very few complications from the surgery. Hope this helps.  Bill

On Aug 08, 2012 11:18 PM wcroeh wrote:

Hi,

I am a pancreatic cancer survivor.  I had nanoknife surgery, by Dr. Robert Martin at Univ. of Louisville, on Jan 16,2012 and right now have no signs of cancer in the CT scan.  I was first diagnosed with inoperable Stage 3B on Feb. 16, 2010.  I had the standard 5FU and radiation as the first treatment, but this did nothing to stop the tumor growth.  Next, I was in a clinical trial at Vanderbilt Univ. for 8 months and then in a clinical trial at Dallas Baylor Sammons Cancer Institute for 7 months.  Both trials stopped the tumor progression for awhile. Then I discovered nanoknife here on the Cancer Compass blog in Dec of 2011.  By this time I am Stage 4A.   I immediately sent my CT scans to Dr. Martin and he said I was a candidate.  To me nanoknife is a miracle machine.   I would probably not be here writing on this blog site if it were not for nanoknife.  If anyone is told they have inoperable PC, I would immediately contact on nanoknife oncolgy surgeon (unfortunatley very few doing pancreatic cancer).   I feel great and had very few complications from the surgery. Hope this helps.  Bill

Hi, Bill! So you are one of the mysterious patients of Dr. Martin!  It is such a shame your cancer went from 3B to 4A before any surgery was done!  So it had spread to some other organ? 

On Aug 08, 2012 11:15 PM jeanrector1 wrote:

On Mar 05, 2011 2:13 PM shelby1 wrote:

Hi, still looking for any and all information on succesful NanoKnife procedure for inoperable tumor on head of pancreas. Found many stories back to March and Sept. 2010 but no "survival" stories. Centers who performed the NanoKnife do not broadcaast long tern effects or status of those who had NanoKnife. This is a big decision to make but I cannot find any real people who have survived more than 3 months. Anybody know anything about Nanoknife???? Options now are medical marijuana, curcurmin, GTX, Folfirinox, Hedgehog, Gemzar/Abraxane so NanoKnife seems most promising but not supported really anywhere. Appreciate info on any of these options. Thanks- Pat

My sister had this procedure done in an open surgery and it was successful!!!  It has almost been a year, she is alive and the scans all show no growth of the cancer!!  Since it kills it the tumor is there on the scan but it is not growing!  It is a very difficult surgery and the tumor has to be under a certain size.  she had it done by Dr. Robert Martin in Louisville.  Hers was on the artery and inoperable.  Her Dr.s thought she was crazy and advised against it yet they had no other options for her.  It works!! hope this helps someone because this is how we found out about it for her was searching the internet.. 

Hi, Jean.  I am so glad your sister went on to have the Nanoknife.  There is still no guarantee the cancer won't come back, but it increases the odds in your favor and that is better than nothing!  My husband had the Nanoknife and whipple in December 2011 and so far so good!  He feels great.  I am so thankful for this website.  Without it, I may never have heard about the Nanoknife!  The local doctors sure don't know anything about it!

On Aug 08, 2012 11:10 PM jeanrector1 wrote:

My sister had a successfull Nano knife procedure for an inoperable tumor on head of pancreas.  It was last October and she is still alive.  It was done by Dr. Robert Martin in Louisville.  It was an extremely difficult surgery and has been a hard recovery but she is alive and it has been close to a year now and all the scans have remained with no growth!  Her dr.s in St. louis all thought she was crazy and even put her in hospice saying the cancer had spread to her stomach.  Dr. Martin was the one who said it had not and to take her out of hospice.  She looks amazing right now and is doing good.  Still has some issues she is battling but minor compared to the alternative!  He gets my vote..  she is a "survivor"!

Dr. Martin is the greatest!

On Oct 12, 2011 11:01 AM judytibbs wrote:

Hi there

Have read all your posts on the nano knife. My husband has had this procedure twice here in Australia for liver mets, first time end of July and then again 6 weeks later. We await a scan in early December but are hopeful of a good outcome.

Judy, how was your Dad's scan in December 2011?

 The scan showed  the tumor that was nanoknifed was gone but there was a new one close to the site of the nanoknife and another 3 new ones in another area. He then started cetuximab (erbitux) weekly and in March a PET showed NED. He continued with the weekly treatments and in June a PET showed 5+ new tumours and the single one near the nanoknife site. He is now on a  combination of folfox & Cetuximab as his CEA markers were going up. He has just been accepted onto the regorafonib programme and hopes to start that shortly. We have spoken to liver surgeon and, if we can shrink the tumors, there is a chance that he can resect the 5+ tumors and we can have the nanoknife again on the single one. I would recommend nanoknife to anyone if they have the opportunity to have it. My husband may not have had the best result but he is still here 12 months later and feeling well.

Sorry, lost the thread of my message.

To repeat, I had nanoknife in August 2011. Funny stuff on both CT and PET by December but PET started to diminish by April. Still watching the "amorphous mass" but Dr. Kortz, nanoknife surgeon in Denver, says he could repeat nanoknife if necessary. Stay tuned....

Joann

Update on my March 5th question.

My husband had the nanoknife (I.R.E.) in May of 2011 and we are still here today. Our scans show the same mass but a biopsy shows hard lump and no spread. We stayed on chemo for 6 months and are now off. Blood tests every three weeks and CT scans every 3.months We are planning a Pet Scan soon to confirm everything's O.K. We went to Dr. Watkins and had "open" surgery which is a difficult surgery but we had had half of the surgery during our failed Whipple years ago so we knew most of the hardships of recovery. We have nothing but good things to say about Dr. Watkins, his staff and the hospital at StonyBrook. I learned of Nanoknife from this blog also but that person no longer posts. We are also over one year and holding!!!! Our decision was to go with the "open" procedure .Interventional Radiology is easier but not with a mental stent involvement! We had an "inoperable" tumor- adenocarcinoma at head of pancreas -vein/artery involvement and many previous months of chemo prior. So, right now we can say, we are one of those survivors who may be answering our own question next year!!!!!!!!!

Pat