Trans-arterial Chemo-embolisation (TACE), a new procedure for treatment of liver cancer, was introduced at JIPMER on June 15 through a successful operation on a patient.
Treatment with TACE increased the chances of survival of patients with liver cancer on whom an operation was not possible.
According to a official release from JIPMER, the procedure was successfully performed by a team of doctors on Govindsamy (52), a cancer patient from Nilgiris, who had a nine centimetre tumour on the right side of his liver and two small tumours, less than two centimetres each, on the left side.
Surgical removal of the tumour was not possible because he was suffering from viral hepatitis B and cirrhosis. A 3D spiral CT scan was done for identifying and mapping the cancer before the procedure.
The procedure was performed via a needle introduced through a blood vessel in the right thigh. A two-millimetre catheter was introduced into the main blood vessel aorta through the needle and was pushed upwards through the blood vessel to the liver and then to the blood vessel supplying the tumour.
A mixture of two anti-cancer medicines were then injected through the catheter to reach the tumour and kill the cancer cells.
After this, the blood vessel supplying blood to the cancer cells was blocked by a procedure called embolisation to kill the cells further. The whole procedure did not require any general anaesthesia.
The patient had a smooth recovery and was discharged after three days.
JIPMER was equipped with all the necessary expertise to perform complex operations and non-operative treatments for liver cancer.
The surgical procedure was performed by a team of doctors which included hepato-biliary surgeon Biju Pottakkat, cardiovascular intervention specialist Santhosh Satheesh and medical oncologist Biswajith Dubashi.