Al Ain: An advance treatment system has been introduced at Al Ain Hospital for the treatment of liver cancer, giving new hope to the patients through minimal invasive therapy.
It’s a cutting-edge and advance treatment offered at the radiology department of the hospital and based on an innovative interventional radiology procedure to treat patients afflicted with liver cancer, said an official of the hospital.
The TACE (Trans-arterial Chemoembolisation) is a minimally invasive therapy that is successfully performed to treat cancerous tumours in cases of liver cancer where it cannot be surgically removed, said Dr Jamal Al Koteesh, Consultant Interventional Radiologist and Chairman of Clinical Imaging Institute at Al Ain Hospital.
The most effective way to treat most cancerous tumours, he said, is by surgically removing them. More than two-thirds of liver cancer patients are not candidates for such a procedure because of the size and location of the tumour or because the tumour has grown into the blood vessels.
“TACE offers an alternative in such critical cases which uses a minimally invasive method with a two-pronged approach wherein blood vessels that feed the tumour are blocked and chemo drugs are delivered to the tumour directly to eradicate the malignancy,” he said.
This is done by using beads or microspheres that are coated with chemotherapeutic drugs injected directly into an artery supplying the tumour, Dr Al Koteesh said. The beads block the blood vessels cutting off blood supply to the tumour in a process called embolisation, optimising the chances to shrink and eradicate tumours.
“TACE chemotherapy is delivered directly to the tumour rather than the whole body as is in the case of traditional chemotherapeutic procedures lessening the side effects of the treatment,” Dr Al Koteesh said.
He said that globally the success of the TACE has been rated as high in critical cases and the procedure will bring a new method of treatment to liver cancer patients in the UAE.
