Combination Treatment Offers Better Option for Colon Cancer Patients
|
By MedImaging International staff writers Posted on 05 Jan 2022 |
|
Image: TheraSphere microscopic glass beads containing yttrium-90 (Photo courtesy of Boston Scientific)
Targeted radioembolization (TARE) alongside chemotherapy improves progress-free survival for patients with colorectal liver metastases (CLM), according to a new study.
Researchers at Northwestern University (NU; Evanston, IL, USA), the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA; USA), and other institutions conducted an international, multicenter, open-label phase III trial of 428 patients with CLM randomly assigned to receive second-line systemic chemotherapy (with or without transarterial Yttrium-90 TARE) on a 1:1 basis. The two primary end points were progression-free survival (PFS) and hepatic PFS (hPFS), assessed by blinded independent central review.
The results showed that the patients receiving a combination of chemotherapy and TARE had longer progression-free survival, but did not improve overall survival. Some subsets of patients had greater benefit from TARE than others; characteristics which could identify patients who could benefit from addition of TARE were the location of the original colon tumor, genetic make-up of the tumor, and the amount of tumor in the liver. Importantly, the addition of TARE did not impact ability to receive subsequent therapy. The study was published on December 10, 2021, in the Journal of Clinical Oncology.
“Most patients with CLM are poor candidates for resection surgery. The cancer is either distributed in a way that it can't be operated on safely, or the size of the lesions makes it impossible,” said lead author professor Mary Mulcahy, MD, of NU. “We know systemic chemotherapy will ultimately fail, so we're looking for non-surgical therapy that can address these patients. This new treatment could be a better option compared to chemotherapy alone.”
TARE involves glass microspheres, within which a radioactive isotope (yttrium-90) is embedded. As healthy liver tissue is mainly perfused by the portal vein, TARE can be selectively administered to the tumors. The microspheres lodge in the small vessels of the tumor (embolization), emitting localized radiation therapy to targeted segments, results in tissue necrosis. The yttrium-90, with a half-life of 3.85 days, decays to Zirconium-90.
Related Links:
Northwestern University
University of California, Los Angeles
Researchers at Northwestern University (NU; Evanston, IL, USA), the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA; USA), and other institutions conducted an international, multicenter, open-label phase III trial of 428 patients with CLM randomly assigned to receive second-line systemic chemotherapy (with or without transarterial Yttrium-90 TARE) on a 1:1 basis. The two primary end points were progression-free survival (PFS) and hepatic PFS (hPFS), assessed by blinded independent central review.
The results showed that the patients receiving a combination of chemotherapy and TARE had longer progression-free survival, but did not improve overall survival. Some subsets of patients had greater benefit from TARE than others; characteristics which could identify patients who could benefit from addition of TARE were the location of the original colon tumor, genetic make-up of the tumor, and the amount of tumor in the liver. Importantly, the addition of TARE did not impact ability to receive subsequent therapy. The study was published on December 10, 2021, in the Journal of Clinical Oncology.
“Most patients with CLM are poor candidates for resection surgery. The cancer is either distributed in a way that it can't be operated on safely, or the size of the lesions makes it impossible,” said lead author professor Mary Mulcahy, MD, of NU. “We know systemic chemotherapy will ultimately fail, so we're looking for non-surgical therapy that can address these patients. This new treatment could be a better option compared to chemotherapy alone.”
TARE involves glass microspheres, within which a radioactive isotope (yttrium-90) is embedded. As healthy liver tissue is mainly perfused by the portal vein, TARE can be selectively administered to the tumors. The microspheres lodge in the small vessels of the tumor (embolization), emitting localized radiation therapy to targeted segments, results in tissue necrosis. The yttrium-90, with a half-life of 3.85 days, decays to Zirconium-90.
Related Links:
Northwestern University
University of California, Los Angeles
Silver Member
X-Ray QA Device
Accu-Gold+ Touch Pro
MRI System
nanoScan MRI 3T/7T
Biopsy Software
Affirm® Contrast
Ultrasound Table
Women’s Ultrasound EA Table
Latest Nuclear Medicine News
- PET Imaging of Inflammation Predicts Recovery and Guides Therapy After Heart Attack
- Radiotheranostic Approach Detects, Kills and Reprograms Aggressive Cancers
- New Imaging Solution Improves Survival for Patients with Recurring Prostate Cancer
- PET Tracer Enables Same-Day Imaging of Triple-Negative Breast and Urothelial Cancers
- New Camera Sees Inside Human Body for Enhanced Scanning and Diagnosis
- Novel Bacteria-Specific PET Imaging Approach Detects Hard-To-Diagnose Lung Infections
- New Imaging Approach Could Reduce Need for Biopsies to Monitor Prostate Cancer
- Novel Radiolabeled Antibody Improves Diagnosis and Treatment of Solid Tumors
- Novel PET Imaging Approach Offers Never-Before-Seen View of Neuroinflammation
- Novel Radiotracer Identifies Biomarker for Triple-Negative Breast Cancer
- Innovative PET Imaging Technique to Help Diagnose Neurodegeneration
- New Molecular Imaging Test to Improve Lung Cancer Diagnosis
- Novel PET Technique Visualizes Spinal Cord Injuries to Predict Recovery
- Next-Gen Tau Radiotracers Outperform FDA-Approved Imaging Agents in Detecting Alzheimer’s
- Breakthrough Method Detects Inflammation in Body Using PET Imaging
- Advanced Imaging Reveals Hidden Metastases in High-Risk Prostate Cancer Patients
Channels
Radiography
view channel
AI Detects Early Signs of Aging from Chest X-Rays
Chronological age does not always reflect how fast the body is truly aging, and current biological age tests often rely on DNA-based markers that may miss early organ-level decline. Detecting subtle, age-related... Read more
X-Ray Breakthrough Captures Three Image-Contrast Types in Single Shot
Detecting early-stage cancer or subtle changes deep inside tissues has long challenged conventional X-ray systems, which rely only on how structures absorb radiation. This limitation keeps many microstructural... Read more
MRI
view channel
Novel Imaging Approach to Improve Treatment for Spinal Cord Injuries
Vascular dysfunction in the spinal cord contributes to multiple neurological conditions, including traumatic injuries and degenerative cervical myelopathy, where reduced blood flow can lead to progressive... Read more
AI-Assisted Model Enhances MRI Heart Scans
A cardiac MRI can reveal critical information about the heart’s function and any abnormalities, but traditional scans take 30 to 90 minutes and often suffer from poor image quality due to patient movement.... Read more
AI Model Outperforms Doctors at Identifying Patients Most At-Risk of Cardiac Arrest
Hypertrophic cardiomyopathy is one of the most common inherited heart conditions and a leading cause of sudden cardiac death in young individuals and athletes. While many patients live normal lives, some... Read more
Ultrasound
view channel
Wearable Ultrasound Imaging System to Enable Real-Time Disease Monitoring
Chronic conditions such as hypertension and heart failure require close monitoring, yet today’s ultrasound imaging is largely confined to hospitals and short, episodic scans. This reactive model limits... Read more
Ultrasound Technique Visualizes Deep Blood Vessels in 3D Without Contrast Agents
Producing clear 3D images of deep blood vessels has long been difficult without relying on contrast agents, CT scans, or MRI. Standard ultrasound typically provides only 2D cross-sections, limiting clinicians’... Read more
General/Advanced Imaging
view channel
AI-Based Tool Accelerates Detection of Kidney Cancer
Diagnosing kidney cancer depends on computed tomography scans, often using contrast agents to reveal abnormalities in kidney structure. Tumors are not always searched for deliberately, as many scans are... Read more
New Algorithm Dramatically Speeds Up Stroke Detection Scans
When patients arrive at emergency rooms with stroke symptoms, clinicians must rapidly determine whether the cause is a blood clot or a brain bleed, as treatment decisions depend on this distinction.... Read more
Imaging IT
view channel
New Google Cloud Medical Imaging Suite Makes Imaging Healthcare Data More Accessible
Medical imaging is a critical tool used to diagnose patients, and there are billions of medical images scanned globally each year. Imaging data accounts for about 90% of all healthcare data1 and, until... Read more
Global AI in Medical Diagnostics Market to Be Driven by Demand for Image Recognition in Radiology
The global artificial intelligence (AI) in medical diagnostics market is expanding with early disease detection being one of its key applications and image recognition becoming a compelling consumer proposition... Read more
Industry News
view channel
GE HealthCare and NVIDIA Collaboration to Reimagine Diagnostic Imaging
GE HealthCare (Chicago, IL, USA) has entered into a collaboration with NVIDIA (Santa Clara, CA, USA), expanding the existing relationship between the two companies to focus on pioneering innovation in... Read more
Patient-Specific 3D-Printed Phantoms Transform CT Imaging
New research has highlighted how anatomically precise, patient-specific 3D-printed phantoms are proving to be scalable, cost-effective, and efficient tools in the development of new CT scan algorithms... Read more
Siemens and Sectra Collaborate on Enhancing Radiology Workflows
Siemens Healthineers (Forchheim, Germany) and Sectra (Linköping, Sweden) have entered into a collaboration aimed at enhancing radiologists' diagnostic capabilities and, in turn, improving patient care... Read more