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Cancer

Tornar

Gnomon

The group has developed a radiofrequency energy applicator designed for the focal ablation of liver tumours. It comprises a cool-wet electrode with remote hypersaline infusion, enabling the creation of larger and more spherical thermal lesions than those achieved with conventional Cool-tip applicators. This enables us to treat larger tumours. Our group devised this new device, and after pre-clinical studies on an animal model, we completed Phase I of the clinical trial (22 patients), as well as recently completing Phase II (70 patients),(http://www.isrctn.com/ISRCTN73194360).

Figure 1. Diagram of the hybrid applicator that includes an internally cooled electrode and two small diameter expandable tubes for perfusing hypertonic saline (20% NaCl) into the tissue at 6 mL/h.

Figure 2. Computational analysis (Finite Element Model) of the temperature reached in the tissue at the end of the ablation in a conventional internally cooled ablation system (A) and in our ablation system (B). The green (around 50°C) shows the estimated volume of the final ablation. In our ablation system (B), hypersaline solution is introduced to improve the shape and size of the ablation, making it larger and more spherical.