Procedures like embolization can be repeated with very minimal side effects and patients really have good results, affirms Dr. Ripal Gandhi, Interventional Radiologist with Miami Cardiac & Vascular Institute.
When physicians treat a patient, they are looking at three things: the extend of the patient’s disease, the performance status and the patient’s liver function. Then, the doctor thinks about the best treatment for the patient. Embolization is when something travels from one part of the bloodstream to another. It means blocking off a blood vessel, Dr. Ignacio Rua, Chief of Vascular Surgery with Miami Cardiac & Vascular Institute and Dr. Ripal Gandhi, Interventional Radiologist with Miami Cardiac & Vascular Institute, agree.
Dr. Gandhi also explains embolization is not only done for cancer. “It can be done for benign lesions as well, such as bleeding, aneurysms or benign tumors,” he says. Dr. Ripal Gandhi, Interventional Radiologist with Miami Cardiac & Vascular Institute, says interventional radiology is a procedure where the physician uses image guidance to perform procedures.
Besides, a more specialized field of that is interventional oncology when the specialist uses image guided procedures to perform procedures in patients who have cancer, the doctor explains.
Not every patient is a surgical candidate. Maybe patients are amenable to even more minimally invasive procedures, like ablation, he says. Liver transplant is only an option for patients who have primary liver cancer. Patients who have a metastasis disease are not candidates for liver transplant, says Dr. Ripal Gandhi, Interventional Radiologist with Miami Cardiac & Vascular Institute.
The specialist explains after the liver transplant, patients are put on high doses of immunosuppressive therapies. “If a patient has a metastasis disease, these therapies can cause additional tumor cells to get out of control and progress rapidly,” he says. Things are getting smaller, more and more minimally invasive and targeted therapies and immunotherapies are really a lot of the future.
As we can target those liver tumors, we have the potential, and we can target other cancers as well. In the future other types of therapies may be offered in a personalized manner to different organs.
Doctors Ignacio Rua, Chief of Vascular Surgery and Ripal Gandhi, Interventional Radiologist with Miami Cardiac & Vascular Institute agree that the future will be better Dr. Ignacio Rua, Chief of Vascular Surgery with Miami Cardiac & Vascular Institute, considers there are a lot of great technologies that make liver cancer treatment either interventional or percutaneous.
In surgery there are so many techniques now to help minimize blood loss, he says.
Dr. Ripal Gandhi, Interventional Radiologist with Miami Cardiac & Vascular Institute, adds for liver cancer, the first line treatment is surgery, embolization or ablation. In other cases, systemic chemotherapy is the first option. Physicians are always to be as minimally invasive as possible when treating any cancer, thinks Dr. Ignacio Rua, Chief of Vascular Surgery with Miami Cardiac & Vascular Institute.
He explains the procedure performed to Cristina, a liver cancer survivor. “We grow the uninvolved part of the heart liver that did not have tumor. We had to grow that part so then we could go in and safely remove almost 80% of her liver,” he says. Pancreatic cancer is not common, but it is one of the most malignant cancers. Dr. Ripal Gandhi, Interventional Radiologist with Miami Cardiac and Vascular Institute, talks about how they are starting to have more significant awareness of the disease. Itchy skin, yellowing of eyes or skin, dark yellow or brown urine, and pain in stomach or back are symptoms of pancreatic cancer. Dr. Ripal Gandhi, Interventional Radiologist with Miami Cardiac and Vascular Institute, explains the symptoms you need to be aware of for an early detection. What do microspheres mean? Dr. Ripal Gandhi, Interventional Radiologist with Miami Cardiac and Vascular Institute, and Dr. Michael Chuong, Radiation Oncologist with Miami Cancer Institute, explain how these very small beads with high doses of beta radiation are used to treat patients with liver cancer, and the advantages of this procedure. How can you know if you are having health problems with your liver? Dr. Ripal Gandhi, Interventional Radiologist with Miami Cardiac and Vascular Institute, and Dr. Michael Chuong, Radiation Oncologist with Miami Cancer Institute, talk about the possible symptoms a liver cancer patient might have, such as weight loss, nausea, vomiting, and a lump in the upper-right abdomen, among others. What can put you at greater risk when it comes to liver cancer? Dr. Ripal Gandhi, Interventional Radiologist with Miami Cardiac and Vascular Institute, and Dr. Michael Chuong, Radiation Oncologist with Miami Cancer Institute, explain the risk factors, such as chronic viral hepatitis, alcohol abuse, obesity, cirrhosis, and diabetes.
