Cancer Imaging and Treatment
About Our Services
For patients experiencing the increasing complexity of oncologic disease, AAR offers some of the most comprehensive imaging and treatment options in the area. Using a multidisciplinary approach, our specialty physicians, Ramesh Rao, MD, Dimitrios Papadouris, MD and Sandeep Bagla, MD, work with local medical and surgical specialists to provide acurate diagnoses, consultation and intervention.
Breast Biopsy
Needle Biopsy
Percutaneous Tumor Ablation
Selective Internal Radiation Therapy for Liver Tumors
Radiofrequency Ablation
Cryoablation
Transcatheter Chemoembolization
Vascular Access Catheters
Needle Biopsy
Needle biopsy is a medical test performed by interventional radiologists to identify the cause of a lump or mass, or other abnormal condition in the body. During the procedure, the doctor inserts a small needle, guided by X-ray fluoroscopy, CAT scan, or ultrasound into the abnormal area. A small sample of tissue is removed and given to a pathologist who looks at it under a microscope to identify the type of abnormality. Imaging guided biopsies allow for diagnosis of cancer without the need for more invasive surgical procedures.
AAR radiologists perform minimally invasive breast biopsies at our convenient outpatient Imaging Centers.
Percutaneous Tumor Ablation
Ablation is a medical term that refers to any procedure used to destroy diseased or damaged tissue in the body. Catheter ablation is a technique during which the interventional radiologist inserts a thin tube (catheter), probe, or needle under imaging guidance through the skin to the affected area of the body. Extreme heat (RF ablation) or cold (cryoablation), alcohol (Ethanol), chemotherapy drugs, or other therapies are then delivered through the catheter, probe, or needle to the tumor. These procedures may be used as pre-surgical treatment to decrease the extent of surgery or may replace surgical resection of some tumors entirely. Most procedures can be performed on an out-patient basis under local anesthesia or light sedation.
Selective Internal Radiation Therapy for Liver Tumors
Selective Internal Radiation Therapy (SIRT) is a targeted non-surgical treatment for liver tumors that uses microscopic radioactive beads, called SIR-Spheres®, to deliver radiation directly to liver tumors. This allows a larger dose of radiation to be implanted in the tumor than is possible with conventional radiotherapy.
SIR-Spheres® are approved in the United States for treatment of inoperable colorectal liver metastases, also known as secondary liver metastases because the cancer cells have spread to the liver from the primary colon or rectal tumor.
Radiofrequency Ablation
Radiofrequency ablation (RFA) offers a nonsurgical, localized treatment that kills the target tissue with heat, while sparing the healthy tissue. Because of the localized nature of this treatment, RFA does not have any systemic side effects. Radiofrequency ablation can be performed without affecting the patient’s overall health and most people can resume their usual activities in a few days.
In this procedure, the interventional radiologist used imaging to guide a small needle through the skin into the tumor. From the tip of the needle, radiofrequency energy is delivered into the target tissue, where it heats and kills the tumor. Although the dead tumor tissue shrinks, the bone that is already eaten away will not grow back.
Cryoablation
Cryoablation is similar to Radiofrequency Ablation in that the energy is delivered directly into the tumor by a probe that is inserted through the skin. But rather than killing the tumor with heat, cryoablation uses an extremely cold gas to freeze it. This technique has been used for many years by surgeons in the operating room, but in the last few years, the needles have become small enough to be used by interventional radiologists through a small nick in the skin without the need for an operation. The “ice ball” that is created around the needle grows in size and destroys the frozen tumor cells.
Transcatheter Chemoembolization
A technique called transcatheter chemoembolization is used for some patients with liver cancer or other types of cancer that have spread to the liver. A catheter is inserted into the artery through a small nick in the skin of the groin and guided to the tumor. A contrast agent (X-ray dye) is injected to highlight blood vessels in the liver. Once the catheter is in place in the artery that supplies the tumor, the interventional radiologist injects a combination of chemotherapy drugs and tiny sponge-like particles. The chemotherapy kills tumor cells, while the particles embolize, or block, the artery and decrease the flow of blood to the tumor, causing it to shrink. The particles also decrease blood flow through the tumor so that chemotherapy drugs remain in contact with cancer cells for a longer period of time—in some cases as long as a month. Because the drugs are delivered directly to the tumor, stronger doses of cancer-killing drugs can be used compared to the doses used with standard chemotherapy, which is injected through a vein in the arm. The technique also may reduce some of the side effects of standard chemotherapy because the drugs are trapped in the liver instead of circulating throughout the body. Although the procedure is not a cure for liver cancer, studies have shown that many patients may experience improvement in symptoms with relief of pain and, depending on the type of cancer, may live longer.
Vascular Access Catheters
People with a wide range of diseases or conditions require Central Venous Access Catheters (CVAC). These are tubes that are inserted beneath your skin so there is a simple, pain-free way for doctors or nurses to draw your blood or give you medication or nutrients. When you have a CVAC, you are spared the irritation and discomfort of repeatedly being stuck by needles. Some types of CVAC that you may hear of are: Groshong catheters, Permcaths, Mediports or Hickman catheters. Once, surgery was required to insert these tubes. Today these procedures can be done without surgery by an interventional radiologist on an out-patient basis.