Minimally Invasive Tumour Therapy (MITT) website of the Department of Radiology at the Charité – Universitätsmedizin Berlin
We experience this every day: many patients wish to participate in the selection of the appropriate treatment. It is therefore important for them to understand the opportunities now offered by modern medicine, and what alternatives there are for achieving the best possible treatment of their condition; for example, minimally invasive procedures.
Through the explanations on this website, we want to provide interested patients with the basic information about minimally invasive methods, so that they have a fundamental orientation and are in a position to have an informed discussion with the doctor.
Why choose the Charité?
The Charité is Germany’s largest university hospital, and is one of the most renowned hospitals worldwide. In tumour therapy, an extensive team is a decisive advantage, because close cooperation between expert specialists from various areas of medicine – for example from surgery and oncology – is essential. Only in this way can we make the very most of the opportunities that modern medicine has to offer to patients.
Being a university hospital also has a further advantage, i.e. that we constantly evaluate our treatment methods, reviewing them and continuously updating them to reflect the latest scientific knowledge. Unlike profit-orientated hospitals, this allows us to maintain our own quality level and gives us greater freedom of action.
What is "minimally invasive tumour therapy"?
It has always been the goal of medical therapy to minimise the stress to the patient. Here, “keyhole surgery“ represented a milestone in the surgical disciplines. Interventional radiology is going one step further, and uses precision instruments introduced through the skin or via blood vessels and controlled using imaging techniques which can be combined if necessary. As a result, only very small incisions are needed to reach the affected parts of the body.
We have deliberately decided to offer some therapeutic approaches in parallel. This puts us in a position to use the most suitable form of treatment for the individual, because every patient is different. With many conditions, especially the treatment of liver tumours, this is a decisive advantage. Some minimally invasive methods were developed or improved in our own hospital.
Every year, we carry out more than 2,000 minimally invasive procedures and treatments, ranging from tissue biopsies to tumour therapy. And this number is growing all the time. It also means the best training and a huge wealth of experience for the doctors who work here. In the Charité’s Department of Radiology, a team of more than 10 doctors specialises in minimally invasive tumour therapy.
Of course, before every treatment we discuss our therapy proposals in detail with the patient. This includes an explanation of whether, in the particular instance, a certain treatment would be associated with increased risk, or whether other treatments might be more suitable.
