Study Shows Star Tumor Ablation System Effective for Spine Pain

A new study published in the Pain Physician Journal has validated Targeted Radiofrequency Ablation (t-RFA) from DFINE Inc.’s Star Tumor Ablation System as a treatment option for spine pain. The study followed patients at five leading academic centers and found a significant decrease (p <0.01) in pain scores after using the San Jose, Calif.-based company’s system.

The participating centers included Washington University School of Medicine, Moffitt Cancer Center, Montefiore Medical Center and the Albert Einstein College of Medicine, University of Louisville Hospital and the University of California, San Diego.

Physicians treated 128 lesions (metastatic tumors) in 92 patients. The average pain score before the procedure was 7.51 out of 10. Within one week post-procedure, the average pain score was reduced to just 1.73. Researchers also noted no patient complications or injuries.

“More than 40 percent of patients at the highest enrolling institution in this study had previous radiation treatment with little to no relief of symptoms,” said Jack W. Jennings, M.D., Ph.D, assistant professor and director of musculoskeletal and spine interventions, Mallinckrodt Institute of Radiology, Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis, Mo. “Our study showed significant and almost immediate reduction in pain and more than half of the patients also decreased their use of pain medication. The procedure also allowed us to treat tumors close to the spinal cord that we have not been able to treat in the past.”

The American Cancer Society estimates that in 2014 there will be more than 1.7 million new cancer cases diagnosed and 585,720 cancer deaths in the United States. Metastatic lesions in bone are common and have been seen in up to 80 percent of patients with cancer at the time of death, with spinal metastasis seen in approximately 50 percent of these patients.

“For late-stage cancer patients, extreme back pain due to spinal tumors degrades quality of life; and until now, limited minimally invasive procedural options for immediate pain relief have been available,” said Nam D. Tran, M.D., and Ph.D., neuro-oncology surgeon at Moffitt Cancer Center. “This multi-center study validates t-RFA as a treatment option that provides rapid, lasting pain relief without the need to interrupt the patient’s primary cancer therapy.”

DFINE makes minimally invasive therapeutic devices used to treat pathologies of the vertebrae.