DuPage Medical Group Urologist Performs Nation’s First Outpatient Focal Ablation of Prostate Using NanoKnife

DOWN­ERS GROVE, Ill. — In a first for the nation, Amit Patel, MD, a Board-cer­ti­­fied urol­o­gist at DuPage Med­ical Group (DMG) suc­cess­ful­ly per­formed a focal abla­tion of the prostate in an out­pa­tient set­ting using the NanoKnife, a lead­­ing-edge sur­gi­cal tool that uti­lizes elec­tri­cal cur­rents to treat tumors. The rev­o­lu­tion­ary pro­ce­dure was com­plet­ed in less than an hour at DMG’s out­pa­tient surgery cen­ter in Lom­bard, Illi­nois, on a patient being treat­ed for prostate cancer.

The avail­abil­i­ty of the pro­ce­dure offers a break­through from cur­rent meth­ods, such as surgery and radi­a­tion ther­a­py.​“It is not uncom­mon for men under­go­ing con­ven­tion­al prostate can­cer pro­ce­dures to expe­ri­ence sig­nif­i­cant side effects relat­ed to uri­nary and sex­u­al func­tion,” explained Dr. Patel.​“A focal abla­tion uti­liz­ing the NanoKnife, spares the side effects and mor­bid­i­ty of stan­dard treatments.”

In NanoKnife treat­ment, strong elec­tri­cal cur­rents deliv­ered to the can­cer­ous cells cause them to die with­out expos­ing the tis­sue to radi­a­tion or heat. Impor­tant­ly anatom­i­cal struc­tures in and around the prostate such as nerves, the intesti­nal wall, sphinc­ter, veins and arter­ies are spared. The pro­ce­dure is brief and per­formed in the out­pa­tient set­ting. Fol­low­ing a few days on a uri­nary catheter, the patient typ­i­cal­ly ful­ly recov­ers in one to two weeks. 

One in eight men will devel­op prostate can­cer in his life­time.​“The sig­nif­i­cance of this new treat­ment is impor­tant, giv­en younger men are con­tract­ing the dis­ease in increas­ing num­bers, and old­er men are more active and live longer,” said Dr. Patel.

DMG’s Lom­bard Ambu­la­to­ry Surgery Cen­ter is home to a com­pre­hen­sive prostate treat­ment cen­ter designed to opti­mize patient out­comes and pro­vide new age inter­ven­tions that improve can­cer cures, remis­sion and recov­ery. For more infor­ma­tion, please vis­it www​.dupagemed​ical​group​.com/​s​e​r​v​i​c​e​s​/​u​r​ology.

About DuPage Med­ical Group

DuPage Med­ical Group (DMG) is the largest inde­pen­dent, mul­ti-spe­­cial­­ty physi­cian group in Illi­nois with more than 750 pri­ma­ry care and spe­cial­ty care physi­cians in over 100 sub­ur­ban Chica­go loca­tions. For more than 20 years, DMG has focused on mak­ing health­care bet­ter for its patients and com­mu­ni­ties by offer­ing high qual­i­ty, com­pas­sion­ate health­care. As a physi­­cian-led orga­ni­za­tion, DMG’s physi­cians work togeth­er – uti­liz­ing lead­­ing-edge tech­nol­o­gy and inno­v­a­tive treat­ment options – to ensure that each patient receives acces­si­ble and effi­cient health­care. For more infor­ma­tion, vis­it www​.dupagemed​ical​group​.com.