Re: therapeutic double-whammy to the tumor while limiting damage to healthy tissue
- From: down@xxxxxxxxxxxx (madiba)
- Date: Wed, 30 Nov 2005 21:47:59 +0100
J <studydras@xxxxxxxx> wrote:
>
> TUESDAY, Nov. 29 (HealthDay News) -- Precisely targeting radiation at a
> liver tumor -- not the entire organ -- and delivering 400 times the normal
> amount of chemotherapy directly to the liver helps extend the lives of
> liver cancer patients, a new study finds.
<snip>
>
> Less than a third of the patients in this study experienced severe
> treatment-related complications, the Michigan team said. The most common
> of these severe problems were upper gastrointestinal ulcers or bleeding,
> liver disease from the radiation, and problems with the catheter.
-yup, arterial catheters tend to becomed clogged...
Nothing against high-tech radiation, but sometimes one should take a
step back and do the numbers. This is all palliative treatment, those
patients are unlikely to live longer than about a year.
Vastly simpler, quicker, cheaper and less toxic is (using ultrasound or
CT) to stick a needle in the liver tumor and inject ethanol into it. If
multiple mets are involved its even more efficient because the
complication rate of stereotactic RT rises logarithmically with the no.
of nodules needed to be treated. Best results in soft tumors like HCC.
The technique is also used for ablating liver/pancreas cysts. However
A. many mets are rather hard (use powered injector?)
B. it can be painful so sufficient analgesia has to be given.
C. Avoid high-tech versions like RFA (better results but more complic.)
--
madiba
.
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