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Treating tumours in the kidney without the need for invasive surgery, using pioneering technology of High Intensity Focused Ultrasound [HIFU] - is this the way forward?
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Situation
7,000 people a year will be diagnosed with kidney cancer - one of the top ten biggest cancer killers in the UK – usually affecting men. The Churchill Hospital had the first dedicated High Intensity Focused Ultrasound Unit in the Western World, which uses a device to treat soft tissue tumours in the kidney. Its application can also be used on tumours in the liver, pancreas, breast and bone. High Intensity Focused Ultrasound [HIFU] provides a potential non-invasive alternative to conventional therapies for solid tumours using an ultrasound beam which passes through the body to focus heat of 80o on the tumour and destroy it. HIFU leaves surrounding healthy tissue undamaged but destroys the tumour, and there are little or no side effects. Trials treating kidney tumours were undertaken late in 2002 and data arising from the treatment of the patients in the trials was submitted to the regulatory authorities and resulted in the award of a CE mark for the device in July 2005. Image guided, non-invasive methods for treating tumours is felt to be highly desirable and seen as the way forward in the next few years. Novel approaches to treating cancer are being looked at by teams around the World but the Unit in Oxford has been amongst the first to be able to conduct clinical trials which has enabled collaborations with World leaders in HIFU research for this innovative therapy. However, funding for this vital research is required to maintain Oxford's research being in the forefront of this technology.