 |
|
|
|
|
Combo Treatment Helps Liver Cancer Patients
Chemotherapy, laser treatment combine to boost lifespans
By Randy Dotinga
HealthDay Reporter
|
| | | | Related Healthscout Videos | |
|
TUESDAY, Oct. 28 (HealthDayNews) -- New research supports radiologists who are trying to treat liver cancer by using a "smart bomb" treatment that first shrinks the tumor and then tries to burn it away.
The one-two punch extended the lives of patients, claims a German study that appears in the November issue of Radiology.
Text Continues Below
The combination therapy also greatly reduces recovery time when compared to the standard surgery treatment, says Dr. Jonathan Susman, an assistant professor of radiology at Columbia University in New York City.
Liver cancer remains one of the most deadly cancers, however, and even cutting-edge treatments don't prevent recurrence in many patients with the most advanced forms of the disease.
"Traditionally, patients have been plagued by poor survival," says Dr. J.F. Geschwind, director of cardiovascular and interventional radiology at The Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore. Even after doctors remove the liver tumors through surgery, they return within five years in 75 percent of cases, he says.
Liver cancer is especially difficult to treat because it's often the result of existing liver disease, such as cirrhosis or hepatitis. "You can even consider it a side effect, no question about it," Geschwind says.
In other cases, liver cancer develops when tumors migrate from other parts of the body, especially the colon or breast.
An estimated 17,300 cases of primary liver cancer -- which do not spread from elsewhere in the body -- are diagnosed in the United States each year, according to the American Cancer Society. Most patients are men. An estimated 14,300 Americans will die of the disease this year.
Doctors can try to burn up the tumors with lasers and high-frequency radio waves. However, tumors with diameters of more than 3 or 4 centimeters are often too large to be treated effectively.
Page: 1 | 2 | Next >>
|
Copyright © 2003 ScoutNews, LLC. All rights reserved.
Last updated 10/28/2003
|
|
SOURCES: J.F. Geschwind, M.D., associate professor, radiology, surgery, and oncology, and director, cardiovascular and interventional radiology, The Johns Hopkins Hospital, Baltimore; Jonathan Susman, M.D., assistant professor, radiology, Division of Vascular and Interventional Radiology, Columbia University, New York City; November 2003 Radiology
|
.gif)
