New Regimen Extends Liver Cancer Survival

TUESDAY, Nov. 29 (HealthDay News) -- Precisely targeting radiation at a liver tumor -- not the entire organ -- and delivering 400 times the normal amount of chemotherapy directly to the liver helps extend the lives of liver cancer patients, a new study finds.

This method deals a therapeutic double-whammy to the tumor while limiting damage to healthy tissue, explained researchers at the University of Michigan (U-M) Comprehensive Cancer Center in Ann Arbor.

The new regimen boosted median survival to nearly 16 months for the 128 patients who received the treatment, compared to a normal survival time of eight to nine months, the study authors report in the Dec. 1 issue of the Journal of Clinical Oncology.

While surgery is the most effective way to treat liver tumors, these tumors often grow in a way that prevents surgical removal. That leaves few treatment options. Traditionally, radiation wasn''t effective against liver cancer because the liver is too sensitive to receive radiation. That''s why the U-M researchers designed a treatment that focuses radiation directly on the tumor.

Patients in the study received radiation twice a day for two weeks, along with a continuous infusion of the chemotherapy drug floxuridine that was delivered through a catheter into an artery that directly feeds the liver. The patients then had a two-week respite before they repeated the radiation/chemotherapy treatment for another two weeks.

Less than a third of the patients in this study experienced severe treatment-related complications, the Michigan team said. The most common of these severe problems were upper gastrointestinal ulcers or bleeding, liver disease from the radiation, and problems with the catheter.

More information

The American Cancer Society has more about liver cancer.

-- Robert Preidt

SOURCE: University of Michigan Health System, news release, Nov. 28, 2005

Last Updated: Nov. 29, 2005