New treatment gives liver patients hope

Local researchers have come up with a new, cheaper way to treat liver cancer, Chinese University's medical faculty has revealed.

The treatment, which completely destroys liver cancer tumours 70 per cent of the time, is seen as a major breakthrough in treating the fourth most deadly cancer worldwide.

There are almost 1,800 new cases and 1,500 deaths from liver cancer, also known as hepatocellular carcinoma, in Hong Kong each year.

"There has been no breakthrough [in other transarterial treatment] for the past 30 years despite our having invested [a lot] in research … So this [piece of news] is very exciting," said Dr Simon Yu Chun-ho, director of the university's Vascular and Interventional Radiology Foundation Clinical Science Centre.

The treatment, called transarterial ethanol ablation, involves injecting a mixture of ethanol and lipiodol into the arteries that supply blood to the tumour in the liver. The mixture then kills the cancer cells within the tumour and permanently seals off the arteries connected to it.

Each procedure, which costs between HK$300 and HK$400, is cheaper than all other options to treat liver cancer because both ethanol and lipiodol are easily available substances, Yu said.

The procedure was performed on 48 patients from 2007 to 2012, and its results were compared against those of another 48 patients who underwent a more conventional treatment.