He is one of the first, in France, to have used the technique of electroportation to destroy prostate cancer, in 2015, within the Tenon hospital, in Paris. Doctor Luca Lunelli, specialist in urological oncology, joined the Hospitals of Chartres at the end of 2019.
The doctor from Italy convinced the establishment’s management to acquire state-of-the-art equipment to offer innovative treatment to patients in the urology department.
What is this new device used to fight cancer at COREL, on the Chartres hospital site?
Since May 2022, the 40-year-old surgeon has been practicing electroportation at Louis-Pasteur Hospital. On Monday, May 30, he took charge of his sixth patient, in the Chartres operating room.
How is the intervention carried out?
“The procedure lasts approximately 45 minutes. The installation and preparation phase is the longest and most delicate. The treatment itself takes no more than 8-10 minutes,” explains doctor Luca Lunelli, before carrying out an ultrasound of the patient’s prostate.
In a few seconds, the two tumors to be treated appear on one of the screens installed near the operating field. The images of the MRI examination, carried out upstream by the patient, were loaded onto a second screen. “We merge the two images in real time, which allows us to benefit from both the precision of MRI and the flexibility of ultrasound to locate the lesion”describes Doctor Luca Lunelli, who then delicately places a small box on his patient.
The new day hospital for cancer treatment is already operating at 120% in Chartres
This identification grid is intended to receive the electrodes which look like large needles.
It’s a bit like a naval battle, illustrates the urologist. If we have a good targeting, we have a good treatment.
–
The surgeon is assisted by an engineer, François-Xavier Curnier, employed by the company Angiodynamics. This American company markets the device – worth €300,000 – used for electroportation.
Passing through Chartres, five cyclists pedal against cancer
Before positioning the four needles, the surgeon calculates to the nearest millimeter the distances to be respected between each of them. The engineer describes:
“Once the lesions have been targeted, the electrodes are connected to the generator. The electric current will pass through the organ at high speed, up to 50 amps, in very short times. This targeted therapy triggers the death of diseased cells by creating a kind of pores in their membrane. »
Francois-Xavier Curnier (engineer at Angiodynamics, the company that markets the generator for carrying out the treatment by electroportation)
–
What are the benefits of this innovative treatment?
The treatment, carried out under general anesthesia, has the advantage of piercing the lesions without causing the release of heat. “Electroportation helps preserve the crucial structures of the prostate, such as the muscles or nerves for urinary continence and erection, specifies the urologist. It is an intervention which is not painful and which has very few collateral effects. There are no external scars. »
Helen Bonnet
–
