Real-Time Navigation Found To Be Useful Tool for Liver Cancer Procedures

Now, a study by researchers at the University of Cincinnati Cancer Center (Cincinnati, OH, USA) has highlighted the effectiveness of real-time navigation in assisting surgeons during liver cancer ablation procedures. The retrospective study examined over 750 ablation procedures, performed by a single experienced surgeon, with and without the aid of navigation, from June 2011 to January 2021. The results revealed no significant differences in survival rates or instances of incomplete ablations — where tumors weren’t fully destroyed — between procedures performed with and without navigation.

Interestingly, the navigation-assisted group included a higher number of patients with advanced disease and tumors located in anatomically challenging positions. These findings suggest that real-time navigation is a valuable tool for surgeons conducting ablations on liver cancer tumors. However, the advantages may not be as evident for surgeons with extensive experience in high-volume procedures. The researchers emphasize that technological innovations play a crucial role in encouraging wider adoption of new treatments and procedures like ablation among surgeons.

“Incorporating ablation into clinical practice is still very new, and most surgeons will have little to no experience with intraoperative targeting,” said David A. Gerber, MD, who led the study. “This clinical experience is one of the largest in North America, so it is likely that navigation will have a greater impact for the less experienced surgeon.”

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University of Cincinnati Cancer Center