Transarterial chemoembolization (TACE) places chemotherapy and synthetic materials called embolic agents into a blood vessel feeding a cancerous tumor to cut off the tumor's blood supply and trap the chemotherapy within the tumor. It is most often used to treat liver cancer but may also be used in patients whose cancer has spread to other areas of the body. Chemoembolization may be used as a standalone treatment or in combination with surgery, ablation, chemotherapy or radiation therapy.
Y-90 therapy, also known as selective internal radiation therapy or SIRT, is a minimally invasive, image-guided approach treating malignant lesions in the liver. The procedure uses a catheter to deliver tiny radioactive beads into the blood vessels that lead directly to the tumor. This allows doctors to treat tumors that are not accessible using conventional surgery or radiation treatments. A Y-90 procedure typically takes about two hours, but requires an overnight stay for observation.
