Medical College One Of Only Five Sites In US Studying TheraSphere Technology For Secondary Liver Tumors

Main Category: Cancer / Oncology
Also Included In: Liver Disease / Hepatitis;  Medical Devices / Diagnostics;  IT / Internet / E-mail
Article Date: 03 Apr 2009 - 6:00 PDT

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The Medical College of Wisconsin is one of only five sites nationwide enrolling patients in a clinical research study of TheraSphere®* Yttrium-90 for secondary (metastatic) liver tumors. Over 2,000 U.S. patients have received TheraSphere treatment for primary liver cancer (originating in the liver). This new FDA-approved study, conducted at Froedtert Hospital and four other sites nationwide, will enroll 150 patients to determine TheraSphere's effectiveness in treating inoperable tumors that have originated in another part of the body and spread to the liver.

TheraSphere®* is an injectable therapeutic device using millions of insoluble microscopic glass beads containing radioactive Yttrium-90. The beads are delivered via an arterial catheter to the liver, directly into the tumor, to attack and destroy cancerous cells, while minimizing the impact on healthy tissue. "Treatment is administered on an outpatient basis, so patients usually do not have to stay overnight in the hospital," says Medical College interventional radiologist William Rilling, M.D., who is leading the study. "Radiation can be delivered directly to the tumor in doses significantly higher than possible with traditional external radiation therapies, and patients rarely experience the side effects associated with chemotherapy."

Medical College physicians were chosen to participate in this study due to the multidisciplinary expertise in treating both primary and secondary liver cancers, as well as for their previous experience with Yttrium-90 therapy. The Medical College site was one of the first ten to nationwide to offer TheraSphere, and has been treating patients with TheraSphere for over four years.

Eligible participants must be ages 18 and over, with a diagnosis of metastatic disease to the liver that is either resistant to or inappropriate for other systemic or liver-directed therapies, including chemotherapy, radiation or surgery.

The American Cancer Society predicts that 19,150 new cases of liver cancer will be diagnosed in the United States in 2007. Throughout the U.S. and Europe, secondary liver tumors occur 10 times more often than primary liver cancer. When cancer is found in the liver, it most often has spread (metastasized) from a cancer that began elsewhere in the body, such as the pancreas, colon, stomach, breast, or lung.

Medical College of Wisconsin
8701 Watertown Plank Rd.
Milwaukee
WI 53226
United States
http://www.mcw.edu