Treatment Extends Survival Time and Provides New Hope to Patients with Liver Tumors

Physicians at LIJ Medical Center are using an innovative new treatment called radioembolization therapy to help patients with liver cancer and maintain their quality of life. The microscopic radioactive spheres can be delivered by the millions directly to the tumors, leaving nearby healthy liver tissue relatively unaffected. The team is headed by Igor Lobko, MD, an interventional radiologist, but requires the close cooperation of many other physicians from various different disciplines, including radiation oncologist John DelRowe, MD, and Christopher Palestro, MD, a specialist in nuclear medicine. The effort is also supported by LIJ’s medical and surgical oncologist.

Of the nearly 150,000 Americans diagnosed with colorectal cancer every year, at least 80 percent will see their cancer spread to the liver. Less than 20 percent of liver tumors can be surgically removed. Metastatic liver cancer is often fatal, with up to 90 percent of patients dying from liver failure. Microspheres therapy has emerged as a treatment for patients with advanced liver cancer when most other treatment options have failed.

LIJ is using a microsphere treatment known as SIR-Spheres®, manufactured by Sirtex Medical. SIR-Spheres® have been administered in nearly 100 medical centers around the world, including more than 65 centers in the U.S. LIJ is one of only two hospitals in New York State using this treatment.

The image-guided, minimally invasive outpatient procedure is a form of selective internal radiation therapy reserved for inoperable cancers in the liver-either primary liver cancers or metastatic cancer that has moved into the liver. A recent study of more than 200 participants found that patients who responded to the therapy had a median survival rate of more than 10 months. The targeted nature of the therapy enables doctors to deliver up to 40 times more radiation to the tumors than conventional radiotherapy. As opposed to conventional radiotherapy, this technique takes advantage of the increased blood flow to the tumors delivering the particles to the tumors from the inside of the vascular system often in areas that traditional radiotherapy cannot easily reach without significant damage to the surrounding structures.

“SIR-Spheres® is a powerful weapon against one of the deadliest forms of cancer,” said David Siegel, MD, chief of interventional radiology at LIJ Medical Center. “In the past, we were able to offer these patients few, if any, treatment options. SIR-Spheres have been proven to extend patient survival and allow patients to maintain a good quality of life”

Contact: Adina Conn (516) 465-2620