Dr. Travis Stork: Thirty million Americans are affected by gastroesophageal reflux disease, but not everyone will develop precancerous cells. If you have heartburn more than three times a week, you need to see a gastroenterologist for screening.
When David discovered he had precancerous cells, he decided to try a new procedure that would stop the cancer from ever forming.
Dr. Kenneth Chang: Well, David has had acid reflux for 20 years. And all that acid coming up and irritating the lining of esophagus changed those cells to become precancerous and we call that Barrett's. HALO Ablation is a new technology that allows us to go in and destroy the cancerous cells.
David: I feel a little nervous. I am hoping everything comes out for the best.
Dr. Kenneth Chang: The device is called the HALO 90, and it's a little cap that we mount onto to the tip of the scope to deliver that heat energy to wipe out bad cells, just slipping that into the esophagus. Where you see this salmon colored tissue coming up into the esophagus, those are the Barrett's cells that we are going to get rid of today.
So we just give it a blast of energy and what will happen now is that the bad cells slough off and the good cells go in its place and he gets a normal esophagus again.
Dr. Travis Stork: David as well as his doctor Dr. Kenneth Chang are here and first of all, about a month ago, you had this done?
David: Yeah, about a month ago you had.
Dr. Travis Stork: How are you feeling?
David: It's great. I feel relieved that I don't have heartburn anymore. I can work out, I am not stressed about that, and not have to think about having cancer anymore.
Dr. Travis Stork: Well, heartburn is annoying, but cancer can be deadly.
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