Bayshore Medical Center now offers Y-90 radioembolization to treat liver tumors without surgery

Jul 30 2018

Hackensack Meridian Health Bayshore Medical Center now offers Y-90 radioembolization, an advanced and minimally invasive method to treat liver tumors without surgery. This procedure is used to treat patients who are not surgical candidates, but who have primary liver cancer or metastatic colon cancer. By directly targeting the tumor, Y-90 radioembolization reduces radiation damage to the healthy tissues surrounding tumors.

Y-90 radioembolization is a combination of embolization and radiation therapy, delivering millions of tiny radioactive beads directly to tumors. For individuals with primary liver cancer, an interventional radiologist makes a small needle puncture in the groin, inserts a catheter and guides it through the blood vessels into the hepatic artery, which supplies the liver.

"This procedure is very precise, minimally invasive and can potentially increase a patient's life expectancy," says Peter Doss, M.D., director of Interventional Radiology at Bayshore Medical Center. "This procedure is not a cure, as those undergoing it are very sick. However, it enables us to use a minimally invasive technique to treat an extremely complicated disease, ultimately helping to improve their quality of life."

In addition to delivering radiation directly into the tumor, Y-90 radioembolization therapy safely allows for larger doses to be delivered, more so than with conventional external beam radiotherapies. Patients are discharged within four to six hours following the outpatient procedure and may resume normal activities within two or three days.

"Harnessing new and innovative methods to help our community is very important to us," says Timothy J. Hogan, FACHE, president of Bayshore Medical Center and Hackensack Meridian Health Riverview Medical Center. "This procedure will have tremendous benefit to individuals living with metastatic colon cancer and liver cancer and I am proud that the team at Bayshore Medical Center is now able to offer it to those in need."