Saturday, November 24, 2007

New radiation therapy helping those with liver cancer

Traditional cancer radiation therapy is delivered from the outside, an external beam aimed at internal organs. Now there's a new kind of radiation for liver cancer that works from the inside out. A two-inch cancerous tumor in the liver of Ruben Caudillo is threatening his life. Hepatitis C has led to liver cancer for 55-year-old Caudillo, who is not a candidate for surgery.

A new technique may help extend Caudillo's life. It's called therasphere. An interventional radiologist snakes a catheter through the groin to the liver and then delivers millions of tiny glass beads that emit radiation. The beads get lodged in the vessels of the tumor and destroy cancer cells while leaving healthy cells intact.

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