Interventional radiologists at Sacred Heart Hospital are providing an innovative therapy for liver cancer that shuts off the artery supplying blood to liver tumors, while also injecting anti-cancer drugs directly to the site.

The non-surgical procedure for liver cancer is known as chemoembolization. During the procedure, interventional radiologists use a catheter to enter an artery to the kidney. Then they inject tiny beads loaded with a chemotherapy drug into an artery that supplies blood to the liver or part of the liver. The injected beads fill the small blood vessels in the tumor and block them.

" By injecting the hepatic artery with tiny beads loaded with a chemotherapeutic agent, we  achieve two things at once,” said Dr. Christopher Bosarge, an interventional radiologist who practices at Sacred Heart Hospital. “We not only are blocking the blood supply to the tumor but are also allowing the drug to slowly release itself from the beads over a couple of weeks directly in the tumor area."

The treatment has been found to be effective in reducing the size of liver tumors, prolonging life, and giving patients a better quality of life.

 During the procedure, the beads are placed inside a small flexible catheter that is inserted into a blood vessel through the patient’s groin. The radiologist use x-ray guidance to advance the catheter through the one of the major liver blood vessels and then into the smaller branch that supplies the tumor. The treatment is a minimally invasive procedure, allowing the patient to go home the next day.

For more information about cancer services at Sacred Heart Hospital, call 850-416-7000 or visit online at www.sacred-heart.org/cancercenter.

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