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I think it’s fair to say that everybody will be affected by cancer
one way or the other during his or her lifetime.
I am a potential cancer patient.
Up to 70% of patients with cancer...
will be facing bone metastasis.
And at this moment, it’s treated with radiation therapy,
but only 60% of the patients are responding.
The patients we see are in a lot of pain.
The problems they have are with daily activities such as sleeping, walking,
this pain can be really debilitating.
All big things start small, and they start somewhere.
Why did this start in Utrecht?
I think there is good history of Philips collaborating with Utrecht.
This is the first technique which we have currently available in the world,
which combines imaging MR with an ablation technique, high intensity focused ultrasound, HIFU,
which is completely non-invasive.
So no instruments whatsoever will go into the patient’s body.
Without touching the patient, we can treat the patient.
This is a very vulnerable patient population,
and they really need every help they can get.
I really want to give them the best treatment possible.
I think it’s very important that, as opposed to cure,
we also focus on care.
So by managing their pain, you restore the patient’s quality of life.
The patients we treat with bone metastasis are part of the research study
and I hope for the future that we have established the treatment technique
and be able to translate this to other institutes.
The shared goal is that we are convinced that we will be able to replace open surgery.
If we have patients with cancer that don’t need to be treated anymore with the surgical scalpel,
and leaving the day after treatment in a good clinical condition,
that would be a really major shift in healthcare in cancer treatment.
We’ve treated a male patient who had very painful bone metastasis because of his cancer
and he really wanted to go work on his boat and sail with his wife,
and because of the treatment with Philips at MR HIFU,
he could do the things he wants to do again.