WBAMC’s first Y90 may improve patients’ lives

FORT BLISS, TX, UNITED STATES

01.25.2017

Story by Marcy Sanchez  

William Beaumont Army Medical Center

William Beaumont Army Medical Center’s first radioembolization procedure, a form of radiation therapy to treat liver cancer, was performed on a 64-year-old beneficiary in December 2016.

The procedure, also known as Y90 treatment, is a minimally-invasive treatment procedure that delivers cancer-killing radiation directly to tumors. It involves placing resin beads filled with the radioactive isotope yttrium Y-90 into the blood vessel which feeds the tumor.

“It’s for patients with inoperable forms of cancer that have metastasized (spread) to the liver,” said Maj. Benjamin Jabara, chief of interventional radiology, WBAMC. “The main goal isn’t to cure it, but it reduces symptoms and help with lifestyles.”

The beads, or microspheres, are directed through arteries via catheter by a physician until reaching the tumor. Once at the tumor site, the beads block cancer-feeding cells and deliver high doses of radiation to the tumor which may extend the lives of patients with inoperable tumors.

For patients, the procedure may offer a relief from pain caused by tumor enlargement.

“As the cancer invades the liver and the tumor enlarges, it pushes on the surrounding organs. It’s very, very uncomfortable,” said Dr. Warren Alexander, hematology/ oncology physician, WBAMC. “When the tumor starts to shrink the impingement on the other organs diminishes.”

While the procedure is used to treat liver cancer, it’s also used in treatment of other cancers which have metastasized to the liver. According to the National Cancer Institute, anything from breast cancer to colon cancer may metastasize to the liver.

“The liver has two supplies of blood going to it: the portal (vein), which actually feeds most of the healthy liver, and the (hepatic) artery, which mainly feeds cancer and abnormal growths,” said Jabara, the physician who performed the treatment. “You can cut off blood flow to the artery and the normal liver can actually do very well and survive as long as they have good portal blood flow.”

The procedure completed last month introduced resin microspheres through a catheter placed in the patient’s wrist into the radial artery, through the aorta and into the hepatic artery to deliver the radioactive beads. Rather than completely occlude blood flow, these microspheres will eliminate cancerous cells within a small radius. The procedure may require multiple treatments to treat the entire liver. After one lobe of the liver is treated, another lobe can be treated using the same modality.

Prior to its introduction at WBAMC, only two other Medical Treatment Facilities in the Army were treating liver cancer with the Y90 procedure.

“It is a treatment that allows the patient to receive the benefit of treatment of their malignancy but doesn’t affect the whole body,” said Alexander, a native of San Francisco. “(The treatment) also gives them a period of time where they don’t require the systemic treatment thereby reducing toxicity.”

According to Alexander, the patient had exhausted the standard of care for the malignancy, adding that the patient had been fighting the cancer for ten years.

“Y90 was really a beneficial treatment for (the patient) because it allowed (the patient) to get treated without suffering the systemic, all-over body effects,” said Alexander. “That’s why it was a good treatment because it improved (the patient’s) quality of life while decreasing tumor burden.”

“We’re providing state-of-the-art locoregional therapy for inoperable cancer. We can now offer patients with inoperable metastatic cancer a minimally invasive palliation or way to treat their cancer and help them live with their cancer longer and be happier,” said Jabara. “This is the cutting edge way of taking care of beneficiaries and helping them out.”

• Date Taken: 01.25.2017
• Date Posted: 01.25.2017 18:10
• Story ID: 221400
• Location: FORT BLISS, TX, US