overview

Selective Internal Radiation Therapy (SIRT), also known as Radioembolization or Y 90, is a liver-directed therapy for inoperable liver tumors. SIRT can be combined with modern chemotherapy or administered as monotherapy. SIRT with SIR-Spheres Y 90 resin microspheres offers patients an opportunity to access radiotherapy for inoperable primary and secondary liver tumors whilst sparing normal liver parenchyma.

technology

The physician uses image guidance to insert a catheter through a small incision in the groin and guided through the femoral artery directly into the liver's blood vessels. The SIR spheres are then injected through the catheter and carried through the liver's blood stream to where they finally lodge in the blood vessels around the tumor. Once the SIR spheres lodge in the tumor's blood vessels they give off radiation. This allows the cancer cells to recieve the radiation while the majority of the surrounding healthy tissue is spared.

treatment goals

Treatment goals for Y 90 include increasing the time in takes the cancer to progress in the liver, extending the overall survival rates, potentially downsizing or downstaging tumors for live resection, ablation or transplantation, and providing palliation of symptoms.

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