In the largest study of its kind, yttrium-90 radioembolization was found to be safe and provided disease stabilization in 98.5 percent of women with chemotherapy-resistant breast cancer liver metastases.
Researchers reviewed treatment outcomes of 75 women, ages 26–82, whose metastases were too large or too numerous to treat with other therapies.
While chemotherapy is the standard treatmen, many patients will either have progressive liver disease despite multiple different treatment regimens, and others will not tolerate the side effects from toxic agents. According to researchers, patients are considered for Y-90 radioembolization when they have no other treatment options. The research was presented at the Society of Interventional Radiology’s 39th Annual Scientific Meeting.
Y-90 radioembolization is a minimally invasive, image-guided therapy where a catheter is inserted and guided into the artery supplying the liver. Micro-beads are administered that emit radiation from inside the tumor, and radiation damage to healthy surrounding tissues is minimized.
In this study, imaging follow-up was available for 69 of the 75 women treated. In all of these women, liver tumors were growing prior to treatment. Following radioembolization, there was disease control in 98.5 percent of the liver tumors, with more than 30 percent reduction in tumor size for 24 women. The treatment had few side effects.
“The value of Y-90 radioembolization in treating patients with non-operative primary liver cancer and metastatic colon cancer has been demonstrated,” said Robert Lewandowski, associate professor of radiology at Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine. Given the low toxicity and high disease control rates, this therapy is expanding to other secondary hepatic malignancies, he said.
