Endoscopic Technique May Be Future of Cancer Treatment

SAN FRANCISCO — Investigational research on a therapeutic technique that will allow physicians to directly inject malignant tumors with cancer fighting agents from inside the body will be presented at the16th International Symposium of Endoscopic Ultrasonography (EUS2008) in San Francisco September 12-13, the conference chairman announced today.

The technique, which uses a flexible gastrointestinal endoscope with a miniature ultrasound transducer on the tip to guide a small needle directly into a tumor, could be a safer and more effective approach to administering chemotherapy since it allows doctors to deliver therapy right to the tumor, thus avoiding damage to normal surrounding tissues, according to the chairman.

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.

Used in conjunction with real time imaging, EUS can detect blood flow in blood vessels in and around tumors as well as detect and biopsy tumors and lymph nodes as small as 3-5 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, according to EUS2008 leaders. EUS may also play a role in the future of minimally invasive surgery (MIS).

A new paradigm in MIS is natural orifice translumenal endoscopic surgery (NOTES). This entails using the stomach as a window to the abdominal cavity. EUS could play an important role in helping surgeons gain safe access to the abdominal cavity as part of NOTES.

"Curvilinear endosonography will likely become the dominant technology within the field of EUS," said co-chairman of EUS2008, Robert Hawes, MD, Professor of Medicine and Peter Cotton Chair for Endoscopic Innovation at the Medical University of 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," he added.

EUS2008 will teach current applications of curvilinear endoscopic ultrasonography in order to encourage endosonographers and gastroenterologists to become proficient in these procedures and increase collaboration with oncology surgeons.

To learn more about the conference, click here.