RF Ablation Helps Prevent Esophogeal Cancer

But if you've been reading MD&DI, you already know about the Halo Ablation System from BÃ,RRX Medical Inc., which won a Medical Design Excellence Award in 2007.The technology's promise has started to pay off in the past year. Acid reflux causes cells in the esophagus to mutate to become more like stomach tissue, a condition called Barrett's esophagus. In some patients, this tissue then further mutates into cancer. The Halo system allows doctors to remove the tissue before it ever gets to that stage. On Monday, the company presented a study that showed that 85% of patients treated with Halo were free of dysplasia 12 months later, and 74% were free of all signs of Barrett's by then. Other studies showed that there were few side effects, and that tissue returned to normal after the procedure.