Doctors from the Da Nang Hospital C have successfully applied the Microwave Ablation (MWA) to destroy liver cancer cells in a 58-year-old man from Quang Nam Province’s Hoi An City.

MWA, a form of thermal ablation used in interventional radiology to treat cancer, is used in patients who have liver cancer for whom surgery is not possible.

After a joint consultation, the hospital’s doctors determined that the MWA technique is the most appropriate and effective method to treat this cancer patient.

With microwave ablation, the surgeons inserted a small laparoscopic port or open incision to access the tumor. A CT scan or ultrasonic guidance was used to pinpoint the exact location of the tumor. A thin antenna, which emited microwaves, was then inserted into the tumor. The probe produces intense heat that ablates (destroys) tumor tissue, within only 30 minutes.

After having undergone MWA, the male patient gradually recovered his health, and he is expected to be discharged from the hospital over the next few days.

Doctor Nguyen Minh Tuan from the hospital’s General Surgery Ward, who got involved in the MWA treatment, a resection (removal of the tumor) or a liver transplant have been the  most radical treatments for liver cancer patients over recent years. However, these conventional techniques are in fact not good choices for those who are not healthy enough to withstand a complex and risky surgery. Also, the treatment duration is about 14 days.

Meanwhile, MWA is a safe procedure, with no mortality and a low rate of major complications, and with only 1 day of treatment.