Doctors at Wolfson Medical Center in Holon successfully implemented a new treatment for pancreatic cancer this week.
The treatment, which had never been attempted previously in Israel, involved the injection of a radioactive substance called Oncosil into a patient diagnosed with advanced-stage pancreatic cancer.
This innovative treatment is approved by the United States Food and Drug Administration as a breakthrough technology, and so far about 250 cancer patients throughout Europe, Australia and New Zealand.
"While today the accepted treatment for patients with pancreatic cancer is one of two types of chemotherapy, [this] unique treatment makes it possible to deliver a large and concentrated amount of radiation directly into the tumor without affecting and damaging other organs," explained Dr. Tomer Griner, director of the invasive endoscopy unit.
How does it work?
Prof. Eran Israeli, director of the Gastroenterology Institute at the Wolfson Medical Center, added: "The goal of the treatment is to shrink the tumor to such a size that it will be possible to perform surgery and resection of the tumor. This is the first time in Israel that the radioactive medicinal substance to treat a cancerous tumor is injected directly into the target organ under [endopic ultrasound] guidance."
"The Wolfson Gastroenterology Institute...is constantly working to expand the array of services for patients and ensure that all treatments in the department are at the cutting-edge of innovation in the field. We are happy to be the first to perform this operation in Israel and believe that this is [good] news for cancer patients in Israel and the entire world," concluded Prof. Israeli.