System and method for creating radio-frequency energy electrical membrane breakdown for tissue ablation
First Claim
1. A method of ablating undesirable soft tissue in a living subject, comprising the steps of:
- identifying a location of said soft tissue within said subject;
determining a position, of at least one electrode relative to said soft tissue;
introducing said at least one electrode to said position within said subject, said electrode electrically connected to a controller for controlling the delivery of electric pulses to said electrode, said controller comprising an electric pulse generator;
applying to said soft tissue an electric field sufficient to cause electrical membrane breakdown of a cell membrane of a plurality of cells of said soft tissue to cause immediate spillage of all intracellular components into an extracellular space and exposure of an internal constituent part of said cell membrane to said extracellular space, said electric field applied to said soft tissue by delivering from said pulse generator to said at least one electrode at least one bi-polar pulse train configured to cause said electrical membrane breakdown, said bi-polar pulse train comprising at least two bi-polar electric pulses, each said bi-polar electric pulse in said bi-polar pulse train being separated by an inter pulse burst interval during which no voltage is applied to said at least one electrode;
wherein a voltage of each of said bi-polar electric pulses is from 0.5 kV to 10 kV; and
wherein a tissue change, cellular membrane destruction and cell death are visually observable in a sample of said undesirable soft tissue taken immediately after applying said electric field to said soft tissue; and
farther comprising the steps of,after applying said electric field to said soft tissue by delivering said bi-polar pulse train, immediately biopsying a portion of said soft tissue to determine an efficacy of said ablation;
if said efficacy exceeds a pre-determined threshold, ceasing said ablation of undesirable soft tissue; and
if said efficacy does not exceed said pre-determined threshold, delivering from said pulse generator to said at least one electrode at least one additional bi-polar electric pulse so as to apply to said soft tissue a second electric field.
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Accused Products
Abstract
A method of non-thermally ablating undesirable tissue in the body by application of pulsed, bi-polar, instant charge reversal electrical fields of sufficient energy to cause complete and immediate cell membrane rupture and destruction. Energy is delivered through radio frequency pulses of particular frequencies, wave characteristics, pulse widths and pulse numbers, such that enhanced physical stresses are placed on the cell membrane to cause its immediate and complete destruction thereby spilling the entire cell content and membrane constituents into the extracellular space without denaturing proteins so as to enable an immunological response to destroy and remove the target tissue and similarly marked tissue elsewhere in the subject.
61 Citations
28 Claims
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1. A method of ablating undesirable soft tissue in a living subject, comprising the steps of:
identifying a location of said soft tissue within said subject; determining a position, of at least one electrode relative to said soft tissue; introducing said at least one electrode to said position within said subject, said electrode electrically connected to a controller for controlling the delivery of electric pulses to said electrode, said controller comprising an electric pulse generator; applying to said soft tissue an electric field sufficient to cause electrical membrane breakdown of a cell membrane of a plurality of cells of said soft tissue to cause immediate spillage of all intracellular components into an extracellular space and exposure of an internal constituent part of said cell membrane to said extracellular space, said electric field applied to said soft tissue by delivering from said pulse generator to said at least one electrode at least one bi-polar pulse train configured to cause said electrical membrane breakdown, said bi-polar pulse train comprising at least two bi-polar electric pulses, each said bi-polar electric pulse in said bi-polar pulse train being separated by an inter pulse burst interval during which no voltage is applied to said at least one electrode; wherein a voltage of each of said bi-polar electric pulses is from 0.5 kV to 10 kV; and wherein a tissue change, cellular membrane destruction and cell death are visually observable in a sample of said undesirable soft tissue taken immediately after applying said electric field to said soft tissue; and
farther comprising the steps of,after applying said electric field to said soft tissue by delivering said bi-polar pulse train, immediately biopsying a portion of said soft tissue to determine an efficacy of said ablation; if said efficacy exceeds a pre-determined threshold, ceasing said ablation of undesirable soft tissue; and if said efficacy does not exceed said pre-determined threshold, delivering from said pulse generator to said at least one electrode at least one additional bi-polar electric pulse so as to apply to said soft tissue a second electric field. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27)
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28. A method of ablating undesirable soft tissue in a living subject, comprising the steps of:
identifying a location of said soft tissue within said subject; determining based on a tissue type of said soft tissue a minimum energy profile necessary to be applied to a cell of said soft tissue to cause cell membrane rupture by electrical membrane breakdown; determining a position of at least one electrode relative to said cell mass; introducing said at least one electrode to said position within said subject, said electrode electrically connected to a controller for controlling the delivery of electric pulses to said electrode, said controller comprising an electric pulse generator; determining based on said minimum energy profile and said position of said at least one electrode an electric field strength necessary to apply to said cell mass said minimum energy profile; determining based on said electric field strength a bi-polar electric pulse train profile having not less than 100 pulses, said pulse train profile characterized by a pulse number, pulse duration and inter pulse burst intervals, said pulses each having a frequency and a voltage, said voltage characterized by an instantaneous reversal of polarity; delivering from said pulse generator to said at least one electrode by said controller a series of electric pulses according to said electric pulse train profile whereby a pulsed electric field is generated, said field applying sufficient energy to a plurality of said cells of said soft tissue to cause cell death by electrical membrane breakdown.
Specification