Interventional Radiology In Brief
This article was originally published in The Gray Sheet
Executive Summary
Embolization/RF ablation for liver cancer: Combining minimally-invasive embolization and ablation is as effective as surgery for treating single tumors up to 7 cm in diameter, according to a study abstract presented by Anne Covey, MD, Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, at the Society of Interventional Radiology annual scientific meeting March 25-30 in Phoenix. Although patients with more advanced liver cancer were treated with the combined treatment, survival rates at one, two, four and five years were 97%, 83%, 77% and 56% compared with 81%, 70%, 70% and 57% for the surgery group. Boston Scientific (Contour SE) and BioSphere Medical (Embosphere Microspheres) are among the firms offering embolization devices, and Boston Scientific (RF 3000), Tyco (Cool-tip) and Rita Medical (Starburst) market RF ablation systems...