Injectable thermal balls for tumor ablation

• US 6,423,056 B1
• Filed: 12/30/1999
• Issued: 07/23/2002
• Est. Priority Date: 12/31/1998
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Ball Semiconductor, Inc.
• Original Assignee: Ball Semiconductor, Inc.
• Inventors: Ishikawa, Akira, Ahn, Samuel S., Ahn, Suzanne I., Takeda, Nabuo, Hays, Steven R., Gaffney, F. Andrew
• Primary Examiner(s): Dvorak, Linda C. M.
• Assistant Examiner(s): Ruddy, David M.
• Application Number:
  US09/475,819
• Time in Patent Office: 936 Days
• Field of Search: 607/101-103, 607/105, 607/113, 606/27, 606/28, 606/31, 606/33, 606/34, 600/9-13
• US Class Current: 606/28
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/0008 Temperature signals
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/416 the spleen
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/42 Detecting, measuring or recording for evaluating the gastrointestinal, the endocrine or the exocrine systems A61B1/00, A61B5/4857, A61B5/486, A61B5/4866, A61B5/4869 take precedence
• CPC Class Codes: A61N 1/406 using implantable thermoseeds or injected particles for localized hyperthermia preparations of seeds and particles A61K41/0052
• CPC Class Codes: H01L 2924/1017 being a sphere

Abstract

A method of tumor ablation using injectable thermal-sensing balls. A catheter system (115) is used to inject a slurry (134) of thermal-sensing balls (136) into a tumor (122) located in, for example, a liver (120). The catheter system (115) comprises a catheter (128) and a specialized syringe (129) consisting of a housing (130) and a plunger (132). The housing (130) includes a cylindrical chamber having the slurry (134) of thermal-sensing balls (136). The catheter (128) is inserted retrograde into the femoral artery and passed to the site of the tumor (122). The hepatic artery (124) branches into smaller vessels, one of which is a tumor artery (126) which feeds the tumor (122). The tip of the catheter (128) is placed in the tumor artery (126) guided by conventional fluoroscopy. The injected balls (136) then receive energy from an external control system (110). The system (110) comprises a control panel (114) as an operator interface for controlling the system (110) and reading data therefrom. A CPU (112) is used for control and monitor of the operation, and transmits power and signals to the injected balls (136) via a radiating antenna (118), which energy is converted into heat to increase the temperature of the tumor (122). The temperature of the balls (136) can then be read from one or more onboard temperature sensors, and displayed to the operator for accurate control of the tumor temperature.

Claims

1. A system for treating tumors, comprising:

a processing unit equipped with antenna means for transmitting and receiving signals, and including input control means and display means; and

one or more miniature substantially spherical heater balls for being disposed proximate to the tumor, each said heater ball including one or more heater elements and integrated circuitry for controlling said heater elements to radiate heat to the adjacent tumor, said integrated circuitry including input/output data communication circuitry and signal processing circuitry for communicating with said processing unit to receive signals for the purpose of controlling the operation of said heater elements.

2. The system of claim 1, further comprising a catheter delivery system for injecting said one or more heater balls into the tumor.

3. The system of claim 2, wherein said heater balls are delivered to the tumor in a viscous slurry using said catheter delivery system.

4. The system of claim 1, wherein said heater balls each include a unique identification number, and said processing unit can uniquely address and separately control each said heater ball.

5. The system of claim 1, wherein said heater ball further comprise a temperature sensor for sensing the temperature parameter of said one or more heater elements.

6. The system of claim 5, further comprising an analog-to-digital converter on each said heater ball for converting said temperature parameter to digital data.

7. The system of claim 1, wherein said heater balls are delivered to the tumor in a viscous slurry using said catheter delivery system, said viscous slurry comprising a blend of said heater balls and temperature sensing balls wherein said heater balls deliver heat to the tumor according to control signals from said processing unit, and said temperature sensing balls measure the temperature parameters of the tumor, said temperature sensing balls include at least one temperature sensor and integrated circuitry, said integrated circuitry including input/output data communication circuitry for communicating with said processing unit to transmit temperature information thereto.

8. The system of claim 1, wherein said heater balls are implemented having a size which is sufficiently large to block vessels which provide fresh blood to the tumor.

10. The system of claim 1, wherein said one or more heater balls comprise a plurality of said heater elements, which said heater elements are independently controllable by said processing unit.

11. The system of claim 1, wherein each said heater ball contains a programmable memory for storing information, such that a group of heater balls may be programmed with a common identification number so that said group of heater balls may be addressed and controlled cooperatively by said processing unit.

9. The system of claim I, wherein said one or more heater balls are configured to provide electrical stimulation to the tumor.

12. A method of treating tumors, comprising:

providing a processing unit equipped with an antenna for transmitting and receiving signals, and including input control means and display means; and

disposing one or more miniature substantially spherical heater balls proximate to the tumor, each heater ball including one or more heater elements and integrated circuitry for controlling the heater elements to radiate heat to the tumor, the integrated circuitry including input/output data communication circuitry and signal processing circuitry for communicating with the processing unit.

13. The method of claim 12, further comprising the step of injecting with a catheter delivery system one or more heater balls into the tumor.

14. The method of claim 13, wherein the step of injecting delivers the heater balls to the tumor in a viscous slurry using the catheter delivery system.

15. The method of claim 12, wherein the heater balls each include a unique identification number, and the processing unit can uniquely address and separately control each heater ball.

16. The method of claim 12, wherein the one or more heater balls further comprise a temperature sensor and further comprising the step of sensing a temperature parameter of the one or more heater elements and transmitting sensed temperature information to the processing unit.

17. The method of claim 16, further comprising an analog-to-digital converter on each heater ball for converting the temperature parameter to digital data.