MILLCREEK, Utah — A first-of-its-kind procedure here in Utah is helping patients dealing with liver cancer, which could be the light at the end of a long road for Earnie Richards and his family.
"It's marvelous not having to be cut open," said Richards, who is currently a patient at St. Mark's Hospital in Millcreek. "I've had plenty of that through the last few years."
For the past 6 years, Richards has dealt with difficult medical issues over the last 6 years, from an aortic aneurysm to a kidney transplant. Last year, he found out he had liver cancer.
"I was not very happy. A few tears. I didn't want another surgery. I told our doctor, I said I'm not doing this. I'm just not doing it," Richards recalled. "The next day, I changed my mind."
Even after his surgery five weeks later, Earnie still had cancer, so his doctors offered to use a machine to do a histotripsy.
"This is almost like magic," said Dr. Ivan Zendejas of the procedure.
While the procedure Zendejas performed on Richards on Thursday wasn't exactly a surgery, it was the first ever done in Utah.
"Minimal side effects, it's just as effective and it's real time," Zendejas explained, "so I can, as the treatment is being delivered, I can see the tumor being destroyed as it happens, and an outpatient procedure is minimal pain."
The machine can pinpoint a tumor in the liver and use ultrasound waves to basically disintegrate it.
"This is just concentrated along the tumor, and it also allows to treat tumors that are in locations that traditionally, we would not touch," the doctor added.
The machine and procedure add more tools to the box when it comes to cancer treatments.
"It's revolutionary the way that we are treating tumors in multiple areas of the liver, without invasion," Zendejas said, "and that for a patient, that is dealing with cancer, and with all the pain and chemotherapy, and toxicity and everything, this is awesome, they can see hope."
Richards is still fighting his battle but is grateful for the technology that will allow him to spend more time with his family..
"It used to be years ago when they said the c-word, you knew it was a death sentence. Today, it's not," he said.
The procedure is only FDA-approved for liver tumors, but the goal is to be able to eventually use the technology to help treat tumors all over the body.
