The Shalimov Center spoke about the most effective treatment for malignant liver tumors
Kyiv • UNN
In malignant liver tumors, preoperative embolization can stimulate the growth of a healthy lobe, reducing the risk of complications. This makes radical surgery safe, providing a chance even for "hopeless" patients.
In cases where a patient has a malignant liver tumor, performing radical surgery is dangerous due to the risk of liver failure. In such a case, preoperative portal vein embolization comes to the rescue. This minimally invasive procedure stimulates the growth of a healthy part of the liver, which reduces the risk of complications and makes surgical treatment safer. Such a procedure gives a chance even to those patients who were previously considered hopeless, reported the Shalimov Center, according to UNN.
Details
The most effective treatment for malignant liver tumors is radical resection, i.e., surgical removal of the affected part of the organ. However, in many cases, tumors are detected late when they are significantly widespread. And therefore, radical surgery becomes dangerous: the remaining part of the liver may be insufficient for normal life. This threatens liver failure with fatal consequences. Such patients were previously considered inoperable and transferred to palliative care.
The solution is preoperative embolization of the portal vein branches. This is a minimally invasive procedure performed by an endovascular surgeon. A thin catheter is inserted through the skin into the liver, and under X-ray guidance, the vessels supplying the affected part of the liver are blocked. Blood is redirected to the healthy part that the surgeons will leave. In 3–4 weeks, this part hypertrophies and learns to function independently. Thanks to this, radical surgery becomes safer.
In the last operation performed by specialists of the Center, a malignant tumor completely enveloped the right lobe of the patient's liver. The left lobe, which was planned to be left after resection, constituted only 20% of the liver's volume.
In such cases, the risk of postoperative mortality exceeds 50%. The patient underwent embolization of the right branch of the portal vein. After 3 weeks, the left lobe increased to 30% - this was enough for a safe operation. Radical resection was performed successfully, without postoperative complications.