New approach in liver cancer

Reported by Susan Aldridge, PhD, medical journalist

A clinical trial shows that targeted radiotherapy and chemotherapy can extend survival for those with liver cancer.
While surgery is traditionally the best way of treating liver cancer, too many tumors turn out to be inoperable. Most cases are either primary liver cancer, bile duct cancer or colon cancers that have spread to the liver. Typically, survival time is eight to nine months.

Now researchers at the University of Michigan show that radiotherapy and chemotherapy can extend these survival times. They used conformal radiation techniques for the radiotherapy which delivers straight to the tumor and leaves the rest of the liver alone. Chemotherpay was with floxuridine delivered through the liver blood supply that otherwise 'feeds' the tumor.

With this new approach, patients were surviving 15 to 17 months, which is promising. The researchers think the radiotherapy and chemotherapy can be refined to give even better outcomes.

Source
Journal of Clinical Oncology 1st December 2005