by The University of Hong Kong (HKU) has announced a revolutionary treatment strategy called “reduce and remove” for patients with locally advanced liver cancer. This innovative approach offers hope for patients with inoperable liver cancer by providing a curative treatment option.
One notable case involved the successful conversion of stage 4 liver cancer to stage 1 cancer using the reduce and remove strategy. The tumor was then removed through living donor liver transplantation. The findings of this case were presented at the Congress of the Asian Society of Transplantation and published in the journal Liver Cancer.
Liver cancer is a significant health issue in Hong Kong, with over 1,700 new cases reported annually. Until now, surgery and liver transplants were the only curative treatments available, but they were only suitable for approximately 30% of patients. The remaining 70% had a five-year survival rate of only about 30%. Therefore, researchers have been focused on expanding the role of surgery and transplantation for this deadly disease.
Led by Professor Albert Chan Chi-yan and Dr. Chiang Chi-leung from the HKU liver cancer research team, the reduce and remove strategy combines stereotactic body radiation (SBRT) and immunotherapy (IO) to shrink locally advanced liver tumors. This combination approach successfully reduced a stage 4 liver cancer tumor to stage 1, allowing for its removal through living donor liver transplantation. The team also applied this strategy to an 85-year-old patient, who underwent successful liver-preserving surgery to remove the tumor.
The first patient, Mr. Wong, presented with a large liver tumor (18.2cm in diameter) and stage 4 liver cancer. After six months of treatment, the tumor size decreased to 9cm, and the patient’s AFP level dropped. Eventually, a living donor liver transplantation was performed, and the patient’s AFP level remained low after the surgery. The final analysis showed only a 1.5cm tumor remaining in the liver, and Mr. Wong has been cancer-free for nearly four months.
The second patient, Mr. Got, had two liver cancers and additional health conditions that made surgery risky. After receiving the reduce and remove treatment, the tumors shrank, and a liver-preserving surgery was successfully performed to remove them. Mr. Got recovered well and was discharged from the hospital.
This innovative treatment strategy provides new hope for liver cancer patients by converting advanced-stage tumors to early-stage tumors, making them suitable for living donor liver transplantation. It has shown promising results in terms of patient recovery and survival rates. Furthermore, the reduce and remove strategy is minimally invasive and well-tolerated, even in elderly patients who are typically not candidates for complex surgery.
The HKU research team believes that their reduce and remove strategy has extensive research significance and clinical value in the field of liver cancer treatment. This breakthrough approach offers a clear treatment schedule, allowing patients to track their progress and plan accordingly. The team hopes that their findings will pave the way for new directions in liver cancer treatment and inspire more research and collaboration in the medical community. Ultimately, the goal is to benefit more liver cancer patients with this innovative strategy.
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1. Source: Coherent Market Insights, Public sources, Desk research
2. We have leveraged AI tools to mine information and compile it
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