Treatment of Liver Cancer In Israel

The best treatment for primary liver cancer is surgical removal. Unfortunately, this is rarely possible, in fact, less than 10% of patients are suitable for surgery. This may be because the liver function is too weak to undergo the operation safely. For example, cirrhosis of the liver makes surgery difficult because of the possibility of bleeding, infection, or liver failure. There are small liver tumors that are not visible, but can grow again after a successful operation.

Despite these problems, however, surgical methods are constantly improving, which makes the treatment of liver cancer in Israel increasingly safe and effective. Currently, more than half of patients survive more than five years after the removal of the primary tumor. Liver transplantation involves the removal of the entire liver surgically and replacing it with a healthy donor liver. In order for a new liver to be taken in the body, the immune system must be severely depressed and inhibit the rejection of a new liver. Recent advances in transplantation and immune medications have made transplantation the main choice for patients with cirrhosis and a small tumor. These are people who could not have an operation due to their liver disease, but now they have a good chance to live more than five years.

Unfortunately, there are not enough liver donors for everyone, and the waiting time for transplantation can be more than one year. The growth of successful experience with living donors and partial liver transplantation increases the chances that someone can go through this difficult, but potentially salutary, liver cancer treatment abroad. If the operation is not possible, there are other treatments that can attack the liver tumor with specifically targeted therapy.

An ethanol or chemotherapy can be injected into a liver tumor in order to kill it. Malignant cells can be frozen and killed by liquid nitrogen (cryotherapy). The laser can be directed to a tumor to kill it with the help of thermal energy. This is the principle of radiofrequency ablation, in which a metal probe is inserted into a tumor under the supervision of ultrasound or CT. Thermal energy is generated from radio waves coming from the probe, and this destroys the surrounding cells, killing the tumor. These local methods are limited to people with only one or two small tumors in the liver.

Chemotherapeutic drugs are injected directly into a blood vessel that nourishes the liver and tumor, in addition, the blood flow to the tumor can be cut by injecting small particles that block the artery. This procedure, called chemoembolization, tries to kill the tumor in two ways: delivering directly to the tumor chemotherapy drugs in a very high concentration of chemotherapy, while preventing its blood supply. Effective chemoembolization requires hospitalization.

There is a similar technology, using microscopic radioactive particles, which instead of chemotherapy is introduced into the blood vessels. It is called radioembolization or selective internal radiotherapy (SIRT). It uses radioactive yttrium and can be as effective as chemoembolization for small and multiple tumors. Radiation therapy uses high doses of energy, such as X-rays directed at small parts of the body, and can often destroy cancer cells.

Liver tissues are more sensitive to radiation than tumor cells, so standard remote irradiation is rarely used. However, new specially designed methods are called conformal or stereotactic radiation, which can be useful in some cases. Chemotherapy refers to drugs that are usually given as tablets or intravenously. Since the function of the liver is to remove the poison from the body, it can resist the action of chemotherapeutic drugs, perceiving them as toxic substances.

Many standard drugs have been tested, and there is cancer treatment in Israel, certain combinations that may be useful to reduce the swelling. Recently, targeted treatment of liver cancer in Israel has been developed: the drugs that directly attack microscopic blood vessels in the tumor, these drugs are called anti-angiogenic drugs, have proved very effective - they slow the growth of cancer and help many patients live longer.