San Diegan gets revolutionary liver cancer treatment (video)

Sean Thomas has dealt with liver issues ever since contracting hepatitis C from a blood transfusion as a baby. As an adult, it led to cirrhosis, a condition marked by scarring of the liver. A few years after that diagnosis, it was discovered that he had developed liver cancer.

Fortunately for Sean, he was a candidate for a brand new treatment called histotripsy. Sharp Memorial Hospital is the first hospital in San Diego County to offer it. Histotripsy is a non-invasive procedure that uses ultrasound energy to destroy liver cancer cells without surgery.

“To be one of the first people that got the procedure — I feel like it’s groundbreaking and could lead to even greater discoveries,” Sean says.

The outpatient procedure lasted about an hour, and Sean was back home by early afternoon the same day. Histotripsy is currently available for some qualifying patients with liver tumors, but it may soon become available for other forms of cancer.

Watch the above video to learn more about Sean and how histotripsy changed his life.

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