The thermal effects on cells depend mainly on two factors – temperature and time. Pre-clinical research done by, amongst others, our co-founder Prof. Karl-Göran Tranberg, has shown that moderate heating of cancerous tumor cells during a long time will kill the targeted tumor itself, and also activate the immune system to attack cancer cells throughout the body.

When cells of a cancerous tumor are moderately heated over time their membranes are cracked. The heated cell then opens and exposes the tumor-specific antigens that were contained within. The body’s immune system reacts to the exposed antigens by producing antibodies can recognize and “flag” these specific tumor antigens anywhere in the body. Thereby the immune system can recognize and attack remaining tumor cells, even those that are outside, or distant from, the treated area. This resulting phenomenon of immune stimulation is called the abscopal effect.

Immune stimulating thermal ablation requires accuracy and precision

Even if the principle is simple, the procedure requires great precision and control. Thermal energy must be accurately guided into the tumor and precisely controlled to generate low, non-coagulating temperatures at the outer surface of the tumor. This causes the cell membranes in this area to open and antigens to be released, creating an immune response that potentially also attacks existing metastases in the body, the abscopal effect.

With the purpose of providing an abscopal effect to be used as a monotherapy or in combination with other cancer immunotherapies in curative treatment of metastasized (spread) cancer, CLS has developed its own specific immune stimulating ablation protocol named imILT®.

TRANBERG® delivers precise and accurate  imILT treatments

The imILT protocol is delivered through a minimally invasive image-guided procedure with the precision and accuracy required using the TRANBERG | Thermal Therapy Systems, with their built-in tissue temperature feedback and control features, integrated with an existing Ultrasound/MR scanner and instrument navigation and positioning system.

Note: The clinical effects when applying the imILT protocol are being investigated and the use of imILT is currently restricted to clinical investigations only.