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anivoc
668 Posts |
 Posted - 05/13/2009 : 02:13:25
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There is a new technique that I recently spoke with one of the inventors about called Thermosurgery. In the states there is only one place that offers the procedure in Phoenix. The equipment to perform the surgery cost @ $25,000.
They us Radio Frequencies (RF) to do this.
They numb the area being treated then take 2 metal probes and space them across the tumor. They then heat the tumor using RF waves to 120 degrees for 30 seconds. It is not a high enough temperature to damage healthy skin but will destroy the malignant tumor. This technique works on all cancers not just skin cancers.
It's a new / old procedure. They have been using it for 30 years to deal with eye lid cancer on cows.
Here's a link to the site.
http://thermosurgery.com/about.htm
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anivoc
668 Posts |
Posted - 05/13/2009 : 02:21:32
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Hi All
Figured I should make a dedicated thread for this topic since I'm sitting in a hotel room in Phoenix with some very sore BCC's that got zapped today.
Well the jury is out but it is definitely not as "non invasive" as I was led to believe.
Looks like I'm going to be bandaged up for a month or so :(
I'm beat but I will report back in a few days about the whole ordeal..
Hope it was worth the effort..time will tell |
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dan
611 Posts |
Posted - 05/14/2009 : 00:38:49
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| Tom, thanks for the post and I hope you have a good result and a quick recovery. |
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jbprof
USA
23 Posts |
Posted - 05/14/2009 : 14:51:00
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Tom-
Would you mind writing a breakdown of the treatment process? I read through the mfr's website and the Phoenix practice's website who uses the technology and I remain a bit fuzzy on what exactly they are doing.
Does the treatment cause blistering/burning or something? I am trying to visualize why bandages are required.
Thanks. |
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thanks01
USA
170 Posts |
Posted - 05/14/2009 : 18:23:17
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| Thanks for following up on this treatment. You had mentioned quite some time ago that you were going to pursue it and I was interested to hear the results. Please continue with your thread here. Like others, I wish you good recovery from the current treatment episode. |
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anivoc
668 Posts |
Posted - 05/15/2009 : 10:31:36
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Short on time and long on discussion here.
I'll break it down:
I had 3 very stubborn BCC's. 2 on my forehead and one on my shoulder.
I have several others that I chose not to have treated because I wanted to see how this went.
IMO this is definitely a different approach and maybe even a better approach than Mohs but only time will tell. Rather than cut the lesion out they heat the tumor to @ 122 degrees for 30 seconds which kills the cancer cells.
Here how it is done.
First they draw a circle where they are going to zap, they then numb the area with lidocaine and a few other drugs to help endure the pain.
They then take a two pronged probe ( in my case spaced about 3/8' apart connected to a cable that goes to the Radio Frequency unit. and the fun begins.
You hear a high pitched sound kind of like a jet engine warming up and depending on how the pain killer is working you feel the area he is touching get warm (or burning)once the tip senses the area has gotten to 122 degrees it starts to beep for 30 seconds. when it stops, the doctor moves the tips a little further on and repeats the process.
The one on my shoulder was the largest area and took about 10 zaps. Pretty much painless other than the several pin pricks in the numbing process.
When he did the 2 on my forehead it was a bit more painful both the pin pricks and the zapping. Each time he zapped it burned, it was bearable but I was clenching my teeth. Of the two lesions one was a nodular BCC that was the largest Dr. Pierce has treated ( Yep I set a new record). It was about an inch long and a half inch wide and stood about an 1/8" raised above the healthy skin. The other one was pretty beat down form all the topical treatments and substantially smaller.
The whole process took about 30 minutes with me s=asking questions and all.
The after effects surprised me. The way it was explained over the phone by the nurse was that I might experience some redness..
I wold compare what I am experiencing more on the bloodroot after effects side of life.. Not quite as much swelling not near as much after pain. Way more drainage. Definitely am going to need to keep these babies bandaged for a month.
The big one on my forehead was about and inch above my left eye. It's now almost 3 days..when I walked out of the office I was pretty swollen but the next morning I was much more and had a little black mouse in the outside corner of my eye. It progressed and by the 2nd morning I had a full on black eye that was difficult opening and seeing through.
The big one on my shoulder blistered and oozes a lot of fluid. I mean soaking a big pad and leaking through and making a 4 inch wet spot on my shirt kind of oozing. The 2 on my forehead ooze but near as much.
I will say it is not terribly painful and now we have to see the results.
05/15/2008
In regards to swelling, as previously mentioned I did not swell as much as with Bloodroot paste. I suppose the forehead which is so thin skinned is prone to more swelling than other areas of the body.
One thing different was that with bloodroot the swelling stayed local to the tumor in the RF case it traveled all over my upper forehead and into my eyes. I looked swollen the first night and woke up with a little mouse the next day.. that mouse grew until the whole upper eye lid was blackened. The next day was worse yet and I felt kind of queasy and headachey all day. That night I decided to try and sleep elevated because I noticed this eye swelling was happening while I was asleep laying prone. Not sure if the swelling was just getting over or sleeping elevated helped but I could open my eyes and the dark redness had traveled down towards the upper cheeks. I'm feeling pretty normal, keeping them bandaged up like I would with the bloodroot treatment.
I have lots more to discuss but short on time so I will return and and to this post as I can.
When I spoke to Gene Hedin, the guy who is marketing this RF device the way he described the process was great, he did a poor job on the after effects but then again he has only seen the process not experienced the process.
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Edited by - anivoc on 05/16/2009 00:30:23 |
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jbprof
USA
23 Posts |
Posted - 05/15/2009 : 15:11:47
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This entire concept is incredibly intriguing. From an efficacy standpoint, does the surgeon expect cure likelihoods similar to Moh's or other excision techniques?
Also, is this treatment covered by insurance for biopsy diagnosed BCC's? |
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janagain
USA
16 Posts |
Posted - 05/20/2009 : 12:06:39
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| Another thing for those who might be interested in seeing Dr. Pierce: you must have a diagnosis before going there. This means you'd have to see a dermatologist (or some other doc) if you think you have a bcc or scc and probably then also have had a biopsy. I was told by his office that Dr. Pierce is strictly a surgeon, so he's not wasting his time making diagnoses. Whether his services are covered by insurance depends on one's individual plan coverage. arrivoc, please keep us posted on how your healing goes. |
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RidgebackDogs
USA
103 Posts |
Posted - 05/21/2009 : 22:04:30
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Anivoc Hi!
How are you doing? am praying this will work out well -- please let us know what is going on.
Hope that the swelling has gone down and that the sleeping propped up helped.
It sounds like the area turns into a burn like type of thing that you are dealing with so maybe some of the same kind of dressings used for burns (which ooze a bit) maybe helpful for you. Did they give you any instructions on how to care for the areas where the thermosurgery was done?
Please let us know how you are!
Thank you!
btw are you still taking the L-carnitine, ALA and coQ10?
Take care & heal quickly!!!!! |
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anivoc
668 Posts |
Posted - 05/27/2009 : 19:04:04
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It's been 11 days since I lasted posted.
Healing up...it is clear that the big ones on my shoulder and forehead will not be eradicated by one treatment :(
Definitely zapped a big part of the nodular on my forehead.. I'll wait a few more weeks and see how things look and report back.
My thoughts as of today are that if you have small bccs not very deep this may be a decent approach and far less scaring than mohs "if" you live near Phoenix..
The fact that I will need to go back and was not informed of this until I was in his chair is irritating. I had e-mailed him pictures of the lesions with a ruler so he could judge how big they were and asked to confirm that he could take care of these. He said he had e-mailed me stating such but oddly I never received an e-mail and it was not in my junk mail when I went back and searched.
Before I made the trip I called asking what the doctor had thought. The nurse indicated he had looked at them and to come out that he would have contacted me if I shouldn't. Basically lousy communication.
Being as it seems petty spurge is the latest success story here I will let these puppies heal and then hit them with the petty spurge before I take another trip to Scottsdale |
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RidgebackDogs
USA
103 Posts |
Posted - 05/27/2009 : 21:01:26
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Thanks Anivoc for the update!
glad you are healing up ok but very sad that it didn't eradicate all the bcc. ratsssssss! it looked hopeful.
i think doctors and communication are like drs and handwriting!
i gotta go for biopsies 1 on left cheek other on rt cheek - nasty!!!
i think it's time to scope out the petty spurge also .... it's supposed to grow around here so they say.
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anivoc
668 Posts |
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anivoc
668 Posts |
Posted - 05/28/2009 : 01:39:10
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RidgebackDogs
USA
103 Posts |
Posted - 05/28/2009 : 20:33:31
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anivoc hi!
Thanks for the map and pix - awesome!!!!
Tried posting a link to a picture i clicked on yahoo search for petty spurge pictures and it didn't post the same way i pasted it in and so wouldn't work but it had like a slideshow at the top about 4-5 images and could click on it and the bottom would show a bigger photo of selected photo - it was cool sorry i couldn't share the link :(
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Edited by - RidgebackDogs on 05/28/2009 20:39:57 |
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chris
New Zealand
2 Posts |
Posted - 06/26/2009 : 06:50:28
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| Tried to post before, long post, lost in the system. Greetings from New Zealand. Have used milkweed, bad news for skin cancers, this plant is just a weed but it packs a big punch. |
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chris
New Zealand
2 Posts |
Posted - 06/26/2009 : 07:08:56
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| I see my post was put up so will try again . This plant does work. I have had many skin treatments for BCC and they are expensive and painful. Where I live this plant grows wild and is a weed that will cause cows some pain if they happen to eat by mistake (I'm a dairy farmer). I have had skin cancer for some 10 or 12 years, decided there must be a better way. i found your website after reading about an aussie doctor that was developing a cream made from milkweed or petty spurge. I have tried it, best thing since sliced bread. I no longer trust my doctor with the knife, have treated myself, he told me I should not look on internet. But he was more upset that a few thousand dollars were no longer there, cheers Chris |
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Shafah
9 Posts |
Posted - 09/10/2009 : 15:55:08
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Chris,
Great to hear about your experience using that milkweed/petty spurge cream. Could you post the name of it please?
Thanks. |
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RidgebackDogs
USA
103 Posts |
Posted - 09/15/2009 : 23:17:43
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Shafah Hi!
i think Chris used the sap from the plant but not sure. The "cream" that's in development is called Peplin - unless chris was talking about something totally different - in which case we would all be interested in hearing from chris the answer to the question you asked! |
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Thermosurgery
