Independent Interventional Radiologist Dr. Chris Johnson often treats liver and kidney tumors. “In the past, any time, a tumor in an organ or bone in the body had to be removed. It was a surgical incision.”

But thanks to new technology, doctors can treat certain tumors using a procedure called ablation. “Really a tumor ablation is not that different from a biopsy that we perform,” said Dr. Johnson. “We’re hitting a target spot with a probe that looks like a needle. We use a CT scan or an ultrasound to guide the needle directly into the center of the tumor in the and then we’re using the probe to either admit radio frequency, or microwave emissions that cook the tumor from the inside.”

The minimally invasive image guided procedure is done through a small needle incision. “It’s effective to find it early to find it small and potentially curative treatment. That’s quick and it’s a sameday procedure with very little recovery time,” said Dr. Johnson. “We do follow up with imaging to make sure that is essentially turning into a scar tissue. We tend to see tumor shrink overtime, and then become a little notch on the organ that we initially saw it as and then we plan on seeing it stay that way. The goal is for it to be curative.” Curing the problem while allowing patients to avoid a major surgery.


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