Chemotherapy Beads Used To Fight Cancer | NBC 4i

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In the fight against cancer, every battle and every weapon counts.?

There's a procedure many have never heard of but is being used to treat certain cancers with great success, especially liver cancer.

It's called transarterial chemoembolization and is often referred to as "chemo beads." It is a minimally invasive procedure that injects chemotherapy drugs directly into the blood vessel feeding the tumor.

Doctors mix tiny beads with chemotherapy drugs and inject the mixture into the patient. That allows the drugs to focus directly on the tumor rather than the entire body. Doctors say it is more effective with fewer side effects.

Linda Gabel is an industrial designer at Mosaic Design Studio and got a big wake-up call one day.? She went to the emergency room with intense pain thinking she was having a heart attack.

"They found a tumor on my liver that had exploded," said Gabel.? She quickly learned that she had a rare form of cancer called gastrointestional stromal tumor.? Gabel had surgery to remove a large tumor in her liver, but then months later another tumor was discovered and surgery was not the best option.

Doctors chose transarterial chemoembolisation and targeted the tumor in her liver with chemo beads. ????????????????????????????????????

Dr. Brian Schirf, at Riverside Methodist Hospital performed the procedure in which he mixed tiny beads with aggressive chemotherapy drugs and injected them into the artery that fed Linda's tumor.

"We tend to get a very high concentration of the beads and chemotherapy in the tumor and not necessarily within the normal liver," said Schirf.

The beads sit in the tumor and leach out, delivering the drug straight to the tumor and over time, killing the tumor.? It's an aggressive, yet minimally invasive approach.
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"We're very happy with the result she has had.? The MRI she had in follow up shows no residual enhancement at all...the rest of her liver was spared and the area around the tumor is dead," said Schirf.

The big perk for patients is they receive aggressive cancer treatment, with fewer side affects since the treatment is localized, rather than delivered to the entire body.

"It was huge because I didn't have hair loss.? I was still tired, and had some symptoms, but I'm able to work.? I came back within five days, which is terrific," said Gabel.

NBC4's Ellie Merritt joined doctors in surgery to see the procedure firsthand.?

Ellie will share how the procedure is done and where doctors are seeing the greatest success in the treatment of cancer tonight on NBC4 at 5.

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Source: http://www2.nbc4i.com/lifestyles/2012/feb/24/chemotherapy-beads-used-fight-cancer-ar-943415/

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