Edward Boas,

As an interventional radiologist, Edward Boas, M.D., Ph.D., performs minimally invasive cancer treatment procedures using needles and catheters, providing a less invasive alternative to surgery for many patients. This involves guiding a needle or a catheter toward a tumor using computed tomography, ultrasound or X-rays, then burning or freezing the tumor (ablation), blocking its blood supply (embolization) or implanting microscopic radioactive particles to treat it (radioembolization). These procedures can be used to treat cancer in the lung, liver and kidney. He also reopens blood vessels that are blocked or narrowed by a blood clot or a tumor, using minimally invasive techniques that are performed through a catheter. 
 
Dr. Boas has performed thousands of image-guided procedures and uses a multidisciplinary clinical approach, which involves coordinating care with surgeons, oncologists and other specialists to decide the best treatment strategy for each patient. Dr. Boas teaches other doctors how to perform these procedures at national meetings, and he is a reviewer for several medical journals. 
 
Dr Boas is currently running a phase II clinical trial of lung chemoembolization, which is a new treatment option for lung cancer that is not responding to systemic therapy. Rather than injecting chemotherapy into a vein, the chemotherapy is delivered directly into the tumor, which potentially reduces side effects and improves efficacy.  City of Hope is currently the only site in the US offering this localized chemotherapy treatment for non-small cell lung cancer. 
 
Dr Boas' also runs the Interventional Oncology Bioengineering Laboratory, which develops new minimally invasive therapies for liver, pancreatic, and lung cancer.  The lab is focused on local immunotherapy / in situ cancer vaccination, which is a new method for training the immune system to recognize and destroy cancer cells