Re: SIR-Spheres

[Guest guest]

There was a post about this awhile back. Give me a little time and I'll see

if I can find it.

Take Care and God Bless

Narice

[Guest guest]

From:

http://www.livercancercenter.upmc.com/AdvancedApproaches/TherasphereBa

sic.asp (must copy in this URL, won't catch second line " sic.asp " )

I have pasted the article below. (I've added something at the end

of the article also)

Yttrium90 Internal radiation

Theraspheres

At the UPMC Liver Cancer Center, theraspheres are currently being

used as initial treatment for certain patients with unresectable

hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC). Over the last two years at the LCC,

more than 65 patients with HCC have been treated with this form of

therapy.

Therasphere is a therapeutic device that delivers radiation directly

to tumors in the liver using glass beads. The tiny beads (or

intrahepatic microspheres) measure one third the diameter of a human

hair, and are embedded with a radioactive element called yttrium90

Millions of these microspheres can be injected into the bloodstream,

then guided into the hepatic artery, the liver's main blood vessel.

When they arrive in the liver, the radiation-laden spheres get stuck

within the smaller blood cells that sustain tumors, rather than the

larger vessels feeding healthy tissue. This is because tumor blood

vessels are smaller in size than normal blood vessels, therefore

deliver radiation directly to tumors while sparing healthy tissue.

As a result, the treatment is relatively nontoxic - ideal for

patients who have chronic hepatitis or cirrhosis and therefore may

not have great hepatic reserve. Therasphere appears to have a low

level of side effects compared with traditional radiation or

chemotherapy. And because yttrium90 radiation poses little danger to

others, patients don't have to remain in the hospital under any kind

of isolation technique - which allows them to interact with family

and friends soon after the procedure. Another advantage is that a

limited number of treatments may be capable of achieving the same

therapeutic efficacy as multiple treatments with chemotherapy or

chemoembolization.

CT response of patient with two HCC tumors injected with a single

Therasphere treatment

SIR-Spheres®

At the UPMC Liver Cancer Center, SIR-Spheres® are currently being

used as treatment for patients with unresectable colon/rectal

metastases to the liver who have failed to respond to systemic

chemotherapy. Over 15 patients have been treated with this form of

therapy.

The SIR-Spheres® are biocompatible radioactive microspheres that emit

yttrium-90. They are delivered by a percutaneous approach into the

hepatic artery feeding the tumors in the liver. A single dose of FUDR

chemotherapy is injected into the liver during the same treatment

session as the SIR-Spheres®.

Example of patient that had successful treatment by SIR-Spheres¨,

followed by liver resection:

Patients that receive either Theraspheres or SIR-Spheres¨ treatment

for liver tumors generally spend 1 evening in the hospital and are

discharged home the next morning

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So you can see the procedure is quite well known. Early on, on this

board are some posts of an adverse reaction to the spheres; one or

some of the spheres went awry, and caused severe esophageal burns.

Perhaps some other board member recalls this. I couldn't locate the

posts as yet.

Hope this helps

Ed

[Guest guest]

Hi P This is not new,been done in Florida for years Have a friend who

had

te procedure done three years ago. maybe it was experimental. Are you in New

Hampshiresed to visit that neighborhood a long time ago. There are many

treatments.

Depends on how bad,not sure if females receive same treatment,since it's my

husband who has the recurrent metastatic colorectal cancer. Don't give up.

Ask

questions,find out who had the procedure,Darthmouth has a good center. New

England has many fine institutions. Check out the web site. I am sure someone

here will be able to give you an answer. have faith,and stay well We will

keep you in our thoughts and prayers nick & Jane

[Guest guest]

P. ,

My wife had liver cancer. She was treated by this Dr. Cirillo,

but he wasn't at Durham Hospital, it was at Wake Forrest Hospital.

I wonder if he moved. Anyway, she had the sirspheres done by him.

The first treatment killed most of the tumor. She originally had a 9

cm tumor. She had another treatment which killed all of the tumor.

Her follow-up PET scan has been negative for about 12 months now.

The oncologists in Kentucky are calling this a miracle treatment.

The down side is she was wiped out for about three weeks after each

treatment. The physician was wonderful, well informed and very

concerned. I would say go for it. E-mail me back with any questions

or concerns.

> My mother has stage IV colon cancer metastatic to the liver.

There

> is a new treatment called SIRT or SIR-Spheres which injects

> radioactive beads into the tumors. Has anyone heard of this? Is

it

> safe? Our closest hospital that does this procedure is Durham

> Regional Hospital and the physician that has done the most in the

> world is a Dr. Cirillo. Has anyone heard about this of the

> hospital? Thank you and god bless.

>

> P.