New Hope For Pancreatic Cancer Patients

The treatment which is FDA approved and involves the passage of high voltage electric current through probes placed in the Tumor during a minimally invasive procedure that requires only an overnight hospital stay, has been found to be quite effective in treating patients with advanced stage disease. The problem until recently was that only tumors smaller than 3 cm could be treated. Dr. Donoway has pioneered the development of a device that enables the treatment of much larger tumors. Because he matches the treatment with each patient's molecular testing and circulating tumor cell analysis he has been able to identify patients that may still be candidates for treatment even though they were originally excluded based on tumor size, location and complexity. This has been a project in evolution and now he is submitting it for publication on those patients with advanced Cancers now out over 5 years who have had the procedure as part of a multimodality strategy along with standard of care treatments. Dr. Donoway explains..."clearly this is not for every patient with Pancreatic Cancer, but does offer an opportunity for some who were denied treatment simply because of the limitations of the original design and comes at a critical time as recently published data from a large international collaborative group shows that patients with advanced and oligo-metastatic Pancreatic Cancer do better when treated more aggressively than with just chemotherapy alone by almost 3x longer median survival." It has become clear that although Pancreatic Cancer is most often diagnosed at a late stage and benefits from palliative chemotherapy in most cases for less than a year, it will be important in the future to individualize patient treatment not only with newer targeted molecular therapy such as K-ras agents but to also remember to include offering such techniques as Pancreatic NanoKnife, Irreversible Electroporation, so that patients do not miss the treatment window of opportunity and are not denied it's benefits.

Dr. Donoway is a Sloan Kettering trained Pancreatic Surgical Oncologist and Past Chief of Surgery at Memorial Regional Hospital as well as "former" Director of the Memorial Regional Cancer Center (now the MCI) and a past Chairman of the Aventura Hospital Cancer Committee. "He is also a former President of the American Cancer Society in South Florida and well as past recipient for Medical Advancement of the Year." He serve"s" currently as the Medical Director of ATLAS ONCOLOGY - Located in Hollywood at 4000 Hollywood Boulevard; in the Presidential Circle building at Suite 555 South. For more information, call: (954) 986-6366. Or: AtlasOncology.com