RALEIGH, N.C. – What looks like gold dust in a jar is actually millions of tiny microspheres that deliver targeted radiation therapy to tumors in the liver. For patients with liver cancer, it might as well be gold.

 

 

During an outpatient procedure, about 40 million individual microspheres are implanted in the liver. 
 

“Over a 14-day period, the radiation will be released and destroy, within just a quarter inch of itself, the tissues around it,” said Dr. Andrew Kennedy, a radiation oncologist with Wake Radiology Consultants.

 

The microspheres are delivered through a catheter inserted in the groin and then into the hepatic artery, which is one of two blood sources into the liver.   Nourishment for the organ comes through a second blood source.

 

“The normal liver has its own supply of nutrients. The tumor has its own supply, and that’s what we’re exploiting by delivering the microspheres there,” said Kennedy.

 

Kennedy says microsphere radiation therapy is intended as an option for patients after chemotherapy and surgery options have been explored or ruled out.  

 

Maggie Miller had the procedure a year ago after surgery to remove several large tumors from her liver left her with a multitude of small tumors she says looked like “salt had been sprinkled all over.”   After one treatment, the tumors were gone.

 

“I’m not saying that I haven’t had divine intervention over the last 18 months,” said Miller, a registered nurse who is assistant dean of student services at UNC School of Nursing. “A lot of people have been praying for me. But this is not a miracle. It’s just sound medical practice.”

 

Kennedy helped to pioneer this procedure about eight years ago, and has been doing it at WakeMed in Raleigh since 2002.   Similar programs have been launched and dropped across the country and here in North Carolina, but Kennedy says the team approach at WakeMed is the reason for its longevity and its success.

 

“One in three patients we treat will have a significant response in the liver and over 50 percent of patients will have some response in the liver,” he said. “So it is very, very attractive in patients who are considering a chemotherapy agent which may only have a 10 or 15 percent chance of response.”

 

 Liver cancer is the fifth most common cancer in the world, and one of the most fatal. Most liver cancer is the result of metastasis from disease in the stomach or digestive system. Without treatments, most patients who develop liver cancer will die within a year. According to Cancer Facts and Figures 2008, while overall cancer deaths declined for a third straight year, liver cancer deaths increased nearly 10 percent in the space of a single year.

 

For more information on liver microsphere therapy and treatment facilities, visit the manufacturer’s website www.sirtex.com