I am an interventional radiologist, a physician who uses x-ray, CT, ultrasound, and MR images to perform procedures less invasively. I am Chief of the Interventional Radiology Service in the Department of Radiology and also director of Memorial Sloan-Kettering's new Center for Image-Guided Intervention (CIGI). At CIGI, multiple imaging modalities and multiple disciplines will be combined to develop and apply new image-guided cancer therapies.
Interventional radiology is an increasingly common approach to treating cancer. We use images to see the tumor and the blood vessels that supply it, to help guide our minimally invasive tools to the site of the tumor, and to perform several different diagnostic and therapeutic techniques. Patients who undergo interventional radiological procedures do not need a large incision; they can often be “consciously sedated” rather than undergo general anesthesia, and in many cases their procedures are less risky and their recovery times shorter than they would be with traditional surgery.
