Gary Onik

Gary Onik
Website http://www.garyonik.com

Gary Onik was born on February 25, 1952 in Brooklyn, New York. The son of an accountant and homemaker. By age five the family had moved to Coney Island, and he already knew he wanted to be a doctor. One of the first science books Gary ever read was a mostly picture book about Louis Pasteur.

When he was eight years old his father died unexpectedly. His mother also died in 2001 of cancer. He is the father of 3 kids and Ice Wars II.

Gary Onik is the inventor of ultrasound guided cryosurgery for both the prostate and the liver.

Onik treated the first liver patients with cryosurgery in 1986 and the first patient with ultrasound guided prostate cryosurgery in 1990, and has developed techniques and instrumentation that have been integral to the minimally invasive treatment of cancer.[1][2]

Onik pioneered the concept of a Male Lumpectomy in which only the cancerous area of the prostate is destroyed by freezing; his research in this area was honored by the Society of Uroradiology as the most important research paper at their 2004 annual meeting in Scottsdale, Arizona. He also utilizes a new biopsy technique called 3D Prostate Mapping Biopsy, in which the extent and location of a patient's cancer is determined by a more accurate biopsy carried out with specialized guidance devices.

Website

http://www.garyonik.com

Medical career

Gary Onik MD, while still in radiology residency training, published the first article suggesting the possibility of image guided thermal tumor ablation; destroying a tumor through freezing or heating and then leaving it to be resorbed by the body. In 1982, using cryosurgical ablation under ultrasound guidance he developed the first new potentially curative treatment for unresectable liver cancer patients. This work spawne image guided RF ablation of liver tumors and subsequently the field, of what is now a 4th branch of oncology, called "Interventional Oncology".

On a parallel research tract Dr. Onik developed one of the first successful minimally invasive spinal procedures, Automated Percutaneous Lumbar Discectomy (APLD), which is still being used almost twenty five years after its initial introduction. Concurrently with his work in hepatic cancer ablation, and spinal surgery.

Dr Onik developed the instrumentation and techniques that allowed for the cryosurgical ablation of prostate cancer, which is now an accepted alternative to radiation and radical prostatectomy and the preferred treatment for patients with prostate cancer who have failed radiation therapy. His concept of "focal therapy" of prostate cancer, treating only the prostate tumor rather than the whole gland, similar to a breast lumpectomy, is now a major research and treatment initiative in all of the major prostate cancer centers in the world.

His recent development of "Irreversible Electroporation" (IRE) “Nano Knife” the first “non thermal” tumor ablation modality is now being used to successfully treat inoperable pancreatic carcinoma, a recently published study indicating it can double overall survival time. This modality also promises effective treatment for other inoperable tumors including those of the head and neck and the brain. The concepts and techniques he developed have had a major impact on the treatment of cancer patients throughout the world and his work has been recognized by awards given to him by major societies in both medicine and engineering.

Education

UNDERGRADUATE

Career

ACADEMIC:

NON-ACADEMIC POSITIONS:

Patents

Books

Honors

References

  1. ↑ "Patent #5674218 Cryosurgical system for destroying tumors by freezing". 1994-08-02.
  2. ↑ "Patent #5674218 Cryosurgical instrument and system and method of cryosurgery".
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