How technology creates smart methods for treating cancer

In this Conversations on the Leading Edge video, Bradford Wood, MD, senior investigator at the National Institutes of Health, explains how technology gives surgeons the information they need to provide better care.

Transcript

00:00

So in general, information is power. And when we have that information at our hands while we are actually doing things

00:07

like trying to cook a tumor with a needle, we have the imaging information of where the tumor specifically is while we're there.

00:13

[MUSIC PLAYING]

00:20

In the case of prostate cancer, we've developed a system that allows us to use MRI information while we're doing things

00:29

to the patient. In this case, biopsying a patient to look for cancer or focally treating a patient with laser ablation,

00:37

for example, where we get rid of a piece of cancer in two minutes, we got to know where to go. Using this technology, we're able to use

00:45

preoperative information, preprocedural imaging that was acquired in the past. And anything that has an X, Y, Z coordinate system,

00:53

and we know where it is in space, we can then map that to the patient, map that to the area of interest, and use that information while we're there

01:02

doing things to the patient, in this case, a biopsy or an ablation, where we're killing the cancer. So the old way of doing it is to stick a needle in an organ

01:10

blindly, looking for cancer. Conventional method, if the PSA is rising, you put a needle in the prostate,

01:17

try to find the cancer. Do you know where you're going? No. Are you happy to be just in the gland itself?

01:23

Yes. So it actually is that blind. It's the only organ and only cancer that's really searched for in a completely blind fashion

01:30

as a standard. And that's the way we practice medieval-- excuse me, modern-- medicine.

01:36

The fusion software for prostate cancer lets us use the MRI information when we need it most

01:44

while we're aiming the needle. So the conventional method-- blind. The new method-- smart. So in the long run, extremely cost effective

01:52

based upon the fact that you're saving an immense number of dollars from overtreatment

01:59

and also the complications associated there. [AUDIO LOGO]