WCAX.COM Local Vermont News, Weather and Sports-Stopping Cancer of the Esophagus
Member Center:
May 28, 2009
For decades Robert Doelfel has dealt with acid reflux. It was so bad that it damaged the lining of his esophagus and put him at risk for cancer-- something that surprised him.
"Well I didn't like it much," he laughs.
"His esophagus changed in the type of cells that it made, so it makes these cells that are precancerous," explains Dr. Charles Lightdale, of New York-Presbyterian Hospital.
Esophagus cancer is up about 500 percent over the past 30 years. A big reason why-- more cases of acid reflux.
But now doctors can prevent harmful cells from turning into cancer.
They use a technique called radiofrequency ablation.
The device is basically a small piece of copper attached to a camera.
During the procedure, a doctor feeds the tube down the esophagus. Energy waves are sent through the copper, destroying pre-cancerous cells and allowing normal cells to re-grow.
With partial funding from the company that makes the device doctors have been testing it.
A new study in the New England Journal of Medicine finds it highly effective.
"I think it worked even better than we thought," Lightdale says.
The treatment takes about a half hour and patients go home the same day.
