By using TARE-Y90 - targeted radiation treatment, chemotherapy-resistant liver cancer in children can be treated. Currently, the radiation treatment is only being used for adults. The results of this study are published in the Pediatric Blood and Cancer journal. The treatment, known as Transarterial Radioembolization with Yttrium-90 (TARE-Y90), shows promise for patients with liver cancer that is resistant to chemotherapy and cannot be surgically removed to help improve survival time, or to shrink tumor size to allow for surgical treatment or transplant.
‘This form of targeted radiation therapy- TARE-Y90 could be effective for kids as they don’t have a lot of treatment options once the chemotherapy fails.’
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"When chemotherapy fails, additional treatment options for children with non-surgical liver cancers are limited and not very effective," said Allison Aguado, MD, lead author of the study and pediatric interventional radiologist at Nemours/Alfred I. duPont Hospital for Children in Wilmington, Del., one of the few locations pediatric patients can receive this care. "TARE-Y90 has the potential to offer children with the hardest to treat liver cancer a treatment that is less toxic than current options and could facilitate a cure."The study describes a retrospective review of 10 children between the ages of 2 and 18 years old with primary liver cancer treated with TARE-Y90 between January 2011 and April 2017. All patients had previously been treated unsuccessfully with chemotherapy and had no curative surgical options but did have preserved liver function.
TARE-Y90, a treatment that is approved by the FDA for adults with liver cancer, allows much higher doses of radiation to be delivered to the tumor while sparing normal surrounding tissue by using an image-guided catheter to carry radioactive microbeads directly to the tumor sites through a tiny incision in the groin.
Each patient was treated with Y90 one to two times and generally observed overnight before being discharged. Most patients reported no or mild side effects, including fatigue and fever.
As a result of the TARE-Y90 treatment, seven patients showed temporary disease control, with two additional patients demonstrating a partial response and one with a robust response that was able to be bridged to transplant.
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"TARE-Y90 should be considered effective and feasible for children with liver cancers and has the potential to be used earlier in treatment, alongside chemotherapy, to help reduce tumor size to provide better surgical treatment options and improved prognosis," said Aguado. "I am fortunate to be part of the Nemours Liver Tumor Treatment Team, working alongside world the renowned pediatric liver specialists, Dr. Howard Katzenstein and Dr. Stephen Dunn, to add interventional radiology to help care for children with liver tumors."
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Source-Eurekalert