nanoknife IRE for pancreatic cancer

Hi everyone,

Does anyone here have anything to share or information about the nanoknife IRE procedure for pancreatic cancer? My mom is 55 years old and was totally healthy and active before diagnosed with stage 3 locally advanced pancreatic cancer in June 2011.  Her cancer is inoperable because it has encased the artery. She did a round a 5-FU which her body did not tolerate well, then she did gemzar and targeted radiation and now she is just on gemzar. The radiation shrunk the tumor but not much and still not enough to operate. I saw something on the news about this new procedure IRE/nanoknife and the news story made it sound great! It just happens to be at her hospital University of Maryland. I do not know why they never offered this to us but when I called the doctor from the news he went over her scans and set up a appointment leading us to believe things are promising.  I would appreciate ANY feedback on this . thank you !!!!

I just sent you a long private reply, but I'll post a little here for others.

My mom, who is 51, just left the hospital after an 11 day hospital stay.  He used the nanoknife to peel the tumor off the artery, then removed half her pancreas, her spleen, and some lymphnodes.  It was a tough surgery, but all signs are looking good at being cancer free.

Good luck!

Hi. I know a few pc patients that went to Louisville Kentucky and had Dr. Martin preform the nanoknife surgery. All successful. But, their cancer did come back in other areas. Like the liver and shoulder. Dr. Martin removed my spleen and gallbladder, not with the nano, just surgery. That was successful. I'm from Wisconsin. And no body here would give me a surgery because of the pc. I think Dr. Martin is a blessing and very above the times. He thinks outside the box. I'm grateful.

Dr. Martin is who did my mom's surgery!  He's amazing!!

WOW, this sounds wonderful.  I wish your mom the best.  I'll be watching the follow-up.  Sometimes thinking out of the box results in better treatment, longer life, and perhaps cure.

God bless you and your mom.

Hi

We have experience with I.R.E. ablation (nanoknife) at Stoney Brook via Dr. Watkins. I did have contact with the University of Maryland but I thought that the radiology dept did this and only without open surgery. just the probes through the abdomen. We needed open surgery and consulted with Drs.Martin and  Watkins  Both Drs were"first"  to perform "open surgery" for this and both have the same great reputation. Ours was a choice of logistics as we did hear from Dr. Martin personally first  but ended up in N.Y. instead of KY. We live in CT.  I did talk personally with the DR. at Uof MD from Radiology but it wasn't a possibility there and Martin and Watkins have more experience in the surgery..  I know you need a Pet scan to be sure nothing has spread as that is the most important part anyway. My husband also has a stent in his bile duct and that prevented the 'laposcopic" method. His tumor also encased the artery and vein. We did the Gemzar alone and that did wonders for 12 months, funny , we had absolutey no luck with the 5FU and radiation. We are on Oxaliplatin and xeloda. Look into this as this actually shrunk the tumor OFF the artery and did make it operable but we found out too late..Best place is Hospital with LOTS of Pancreatic cancer experience overall.

This is the info I researched. The "laposcopic" method of Nanoknife is done in lots of places around the country including U of MD.and I believe that's the stuff you see and hear about on the news.  In the spring MD did not do "open surgery"  You're in Baltimore which is where John  Hopkins is which is top three for Pancreatic cancer. Great Dr.s there, still in touch with them. They are aware of Nanoknife and I would get their opinion A.S.A.P. They have LOTS of options.but i don't think they do Nano yet.  They also are big in research, trials and experience in Pancreatic cancer. They have clinic days there to discuss all options whether through them or your own doctors. You need all your records with you.

Nanoknife is an option if  things are "inoperable" but chemo is also given with the nano  for a time and that is determined by your oncologist not the Nano Dr. If you can have the laposcopic version great but there are other things too!! We would still do the Nano as it is a time limited procedure and chemo is also part of it. Good luck and I hope I didn't confuse you.            

On Nov 30, 2011 3:43 AM kelizabeth wrote:

Hi everyone,

Does anyone here have anything to share or information about the nanoknife IRE procedure for pancreatic cancer? My mom is 55 years old and was totally healthy and active before diagnosed with stage 3 locally advanced pancreatic cancer in June 2011.  Her cancer is inoperable because it has encased the artery. She did a round a 5-FU which her body did not tolerate well, then she did gemzar and targeted radiation and now she is just on gemzar. The radiation shrunk the tumor but not much and still not enough to operate. I saw something on the news about this new procedure IRE/nanoknife and the news story made it sound great! It just happens to be at her hospital University of Maryland. I do not know why they never offered this to us but when I called the doctor from the news he went over her scans and set up a appointment leading us to believe things are promising.  I would appreciate ANY feedback on this . thank you !!!!

For Pancreatic Cancer, first undertake Nanoknife (Irreversible Electroporation, IRE), then the Whipple Procedure.

For journal articles on IRE prospects see the publications list at the bottom ofhttp://clinicaltrials.gov/show/NCT01369420. Although the publications describe intervention by Radio Frequency Ablation (RFA), IRE may be expected to produce similar or better results. A fine article on the workings of IRE is athttp://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2989557/pdf/gn

Most IRE and RFA procedures are performed by interventional radiologists, not surgeons. It is better if you can find a surgical oncologist who utilizes the technology, because he will then be able to use it during open surgery as well, and he has better surgery perspectives. A related story is athttp://commcgi.cc.stonybrook.edu/am2/publish/General_Unive Watkins’ profile is athttp://uhmc-echoiisp.uhmc.sunysb.edu/echonet/physicianrefe

Do not waste your time on radiotherapy, such as Cyberknife. It is unlikely to gain any lasting benefit.

Much IRE work has been done at the following institutions:

·       Baptist Health,Little Rock,AR: 888-227-8478www.baptist-health.com ;

·       Valley Baptist,Harlingen,Texas 956-389-1854;

·       University ofMiami,Sylvester Cancer Center,Florida,https://www.med.miami.edu/patients/sccc_nanoknife.asp;

·       PiedmontCancerCenter,Atlanta,GA, 404-425-7925,http://piedmontcancer.org/oth/Page.asp?PageID=OTH000418;

·       Banner Health Good Samaritan,Phoenix,AZ, 602-839-2000

·       Surgeon Kevin Watkins of Stony Brook Univesity,New York, is using IRE on pancreatic tumors. Seehttp://commcgi.cc.stonybrook.edu/am2/publish/General_Univ

·       Special consideration should be given to Robert Martin, MD, PhD, FACS at theUniversity ofLouisville, 502-629-3355, who is an oncological surgeon.

·       To Fred M Moeslein, MD, PhD, Assistant Professor, Diagnostic Radiology,University ofMaryland,School ofMedicine, who is an aggressive interventional radiologist.

·       ToStephen B. Solomon, MD, Chief of the Interventional Radiology,MemorialSloanKetteringCancerCenter.

·       ToSandeep Bagla,MD, CVIR Department,InovaAlexandriaHospital,Alexandria,Virginia, who is an interventional radiologist;

·       ToSteven J Citron, MD, Radiology Associates ofAtlanta,Atlanta,Georgia.

·       The most IRE work on humans, though not Pancreatic, has been done by Dr Govindarajan Narayanan, Chief Vascular Interventional Radiology, University of Miami, Miller School of Medicine.

Overall the best institution for Pancreatic Cancer care is MD AndersonCancerCenterinHouston,Texas, but it surprisingly does not utilize IRE as yet. Pancreatic Cancer will metastasize to the liver. Douglas B Evans, 713.794.4324, F: 713.745.4426, is probably the most skilled pancreatic oncological surgeon in the nation. Jeffrey Norton, ofStanfordUniversity, was the surgeon for Steve Jobs, and is known for the aggressiveness of his surgery (which is good).

And, Steven A Curley, MD, of MDACC is likely the best liver surgical oncologist in the nation. He is a developer of RFA techniques. RFA, as Dr Curley has recently shown, has a high cancer recurrence rate, which makes it surprising that MDACC has not acquired IRE (Nanoknife) equipment.

Do not hesitate to travel, thinking it inconvenient. Death is far more inconvenient. This cancer is a swiftly moving parade, one misstep, and one cannot go back to take a path forsaken earlier.

One final note: If you are accepted for therapy by an IRE practitioner, and he wishes to delay work to await the outcome of a previous procedure, do not wait. Have the IRE done immediately.

Thank you so much for all of this information!  I copied and pasted all the links and everything and put it into my research book that I am going to take to the appointment with me. I really appreciate you taking the time to help! I will keep you updated on any progress! Thanks again

Thank you! I will keep everyone posted

Thank you for the info I feel so blessed to have found this website and heard from all of you. I'm so glad you had a successful surgery. I will  be praying for you !