Current research being undertaken in the Department of Surgery is looking at a promising modern way of killing cancer in the liver- using electricity.

A Program Grant awarded by The Queen Elizabeth Hospital Research Foundation to Professor Guy Maddern and his team last year has enabled the continuation of this exciting research.

Currently there are two types of electricity that can be used to kill liver cancer cells. One is radiofrequency ablation and the other is electrochemical therapy. These are both effective methods, however they can only be used effectively to kill cancerous tumours of a small size, no more than 3cm in diameter. The new method is named Bimodal Electric Tissue Ablation (BETA) as it uses a combination of two different electrical energies to ablate cancerous tumours.

Dr Leong Tiong, a member of the project team, is looking at how this method can be improved so that larger cancers can be successfully eliminated, potentially helping many more patients.

“Out of the two different methods the radiofrequency ablation is more commonly used and works very quickly, taking about 15-20 minutes. The electrochemical therapy also works very well, but it takes longer, up to several hours,” said Dr Tiong.

“My research is looking to combine these two ablation methods, which will not only increase the size of the tumour that can be treated but the process will also be shorter taking just 20-30 minutes,” he said.

This electrical type of cancer treatment is useful for patients who cannot undergo surgery for any number of reasons.

“Some patients may be too sick or too unstable, or too old to undergo surgery, but the beauty of this treatment is that it is less invasive to the human body compared to surgery,” said Dr Tiong.

“All we need to do in insert a small needle into the tumour, which can be done with the patient conscious and a small amount of local anaesthetic, with minimal pain involved,” he said.

This electrical method of treating cancer is also beneficial in combination with surgery. Surgeons can remove as much of the cancerous tumour as possible, while those that cannot be removed can be destroyed using this electrical method.

“In the past for people in these situations the cancer was incurable, where as now they have options,” said Dr Tiong.

Researchers are at early stages with this project however once the safety and efficacy of this combination method has been  proved, there is potential to cure many more people with not just liver cancer, but many other types of cancer including skin, lung and bone cancer.