Chemoembolization Increases Survival of Liver Cancer Patients

In the chemoembolization procedure, a catheter is placed in an artery in the groin of a patient and threaded to the artery supplying blood to the liver tumor.

Contrast material is injected and x-rays are taken of the tiny thread-like vessels. Then a high dose of chemotherapy drugs mixed with an oil-like medium is injected, and the oil droplets transport the chemotherapy drugs to the tumor. An embolizing material is then delivered to close or restrict the blood vessels leading to the tumor, trapping the chemotherapy drugs within the tumor. Once the blood supply is shut off, the tissue breaks down and the tumor dies. Patients leave the hospital within 24-36 hours.

"We now have proof that patients live up to three years longer with chemoembolization and, more importantly, with a sustained quality of life,” said Jeff Geschwind, M.D., associate professor of radiology, surgery, and oncology at The Johns Hopkins Hospital (Baltimore, MD, USA). Dr. Geschwind discussed the procedure during a media briefing by the Radiological Society of North America (RSNA) in New York (NY, USA).




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