Physicians of the branch of the National Medical Research Center of Radiology – MRRC named after A.F. Tsyba in Obninsk, Kaluga region, began to carry out unique operations for radioembolization of the liver. On the first day on Friday, April 9, operations were performed on four patients at once, according to the press service of the National Medical Research Center of Radiology of the Russian Ministry of Health.
“Clinical testing of the unique technique began at the branch of the National Medical Research Center of Radiology – MRRC named after A.F. Tsyba. Four patients with hepatocellular cancer underwent radioembolization of the liver at once. This method is used to treat advanced forms of liver cancer and metastases in it,” press service.
According to the applied technique, microspheres containing the radionuclide preparation yttrium-90 are injected into the vessels feeding the tumor. This allows you to stop the growth of formations in 90% of patients and increases life expectancy by 4-5 times, in contrast to other methods of treatment.
Prior to that, such operations in Russia were unavailable due to the high cost and complex logistics of delivering microspheres to Russia. Now the country has begun production of its own domestic microspheres saturated with yttrium-90 radionuclide.
The National Medical Research Center of Radiology is the first medical institution in Russia where this technique is applied in full.
The first operations were carried out under the supervision of Academician of the Russian Academy of Sciences Andrei Kaprin and Professor of the Russian Academy of Sciences Sergei Ivanov. Since 2019, 8 patients have already been treated with liver radioembolization.
“For the forthcoming scaling of the method, we must increase the production of microemboli and radiopharmaceuticals and prepare a whole galaxy of specialists capable of performing such jewelry operations, which include radioembolization,” says Academician Kaprin.
In Russia, about 9 thousand new cases of liver cancer are registered annually, while radical surgery is possible only in 20% of cases, and standard chemotherapy is effective in only one patient out of five.