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About the Ablative Oncology Center
The UC Irvine Health Ablative Oncology Center is a unique, multidisciplinary effort to treat and cure cancer of all types with the most advanced and least invasive methods available. By applying highly targeted therapies to ablate, or destroy, malignant and benign cancers while preserving surrounding tissues, patients experience fewer, smaller or no incisions, less pain and time away from work.
Located at UC Irvine Medical Center, the Ablative Oncology Center is the nation's first multidisciplinary clinical and academic center — and the only one in Orange County — dedicated to the ablative care of disease. The center's team approach establishes a paradigm of collaboration unique in clinical medicine.
Ablative center specialists apply the most advanced technologies, targeting malignant and benign diseases with leading-edge imaging modalities, including one of the world's most powerful magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) systems.
The interdisciplinary approach between interventional radiology and surgical specialties ensures that treatment strategies optimize patient care, including ensuring accurate image-guided lesion targeting while reducing radiation exposure throughout the course of treatment and improving recovery time.
The center's highly skilled physicians, working at Orange County's only university hospital, also are at the forefront of research in how ablative methods can improve the treatment of malignant and benign cancers in almost all body systems, including:
- Kidney
- Liver
- Lung
- Prostate
- Bone
To date, cryoablation and radiofrequency ablation are the most commonly applied energy sources. Other energy sources for ablation therapy include:
- High-intensity focused ultrasound (HIFU)
- Interstitial lasers
- Irreversible electroporation (NanoKnife®)
- Microwave ablation
- Embolization
Successful ablation is highly dependent on the precise targeting of the destructive energy source. Ultrasound, CT scans and MRIs are the most commonly used modalities for targeting and monitoring tissue ablation.
The center's clinical activities also support the UC Irvine School of Medicine's goal of sharing knowledge through education programs. Medical students, residents, fellows and physician trainees learn from didactic sessions in ablative therapies by expert and experienced UC Irvine faculty members.
A training program at the university's Surgical Education Center also allows community physicians and surgeons to learn the techniques, to understand the nuances of ablative therapies and to practice applying them to a wide variety of diseases. The accredited surgical education center has an established reputation for excellence in intensive skills training for physicians. With curricula developed by Ablative Oncology Center faculty members, the multidisciplinary training program expands the reach of successful clinical applications of ablative technologies throughout Orange County and beyond.
Under the leadership of Dr. Jaime Landman, the center's key goals are:
- To redefine minimally invasive cancer treatments and provide our patients the best solutions for their problems
- To foster effective collaboration between surgeons, interventional radiologists and oncologists of all disciplines
- To deliver the most advanced ablative technologies clinically available
- To integrate the investigational resources of the medical center and the university's main campus to foster collaborative innovation in translational research of ablative therapies
- To focus on education that ensures the transfer of ablation team skills to students, nurses, technicians, residents, fellows and community physicians
For more information or to make an appointment with Ablative Oncology Center physicians, please contact us at 714-456-7005.