Chinese doctors complete innovative targeted therapy for liver cancer

GUANGZHOU, Oct. 25 (Xinhua) -- A hospital in the southern Chinese city of Shenzhen said Wednesday that its doctors have successfully completed an innovative targeted therapy for liver cancer, achieving a new breakthrough in the field.

With the support of an organ maintenance system, doctors of the Seventh Affiliated Hospital of Sun Yat-sen University, ensured that high-concentration chemotherapy drugs only targeted the cancerous part of a patient's liver, leaving the healthy part of the liver and the whole body unaffected.

The patient in the case is a 55-year-old with advanced-stage liver cancer, with a relatively large tumor located in the right lobe of the liver.

In response to the situation, the hospital's team collaborated with Professor He Xiaoshun's team from the First Affiliated Hospital of Sun Yat-sen University, applying for the first time the "organ-targeted therapy" proposed by He's team.

According to He, during surgery, after separating the left and right lobes of the liver, the doctors immediately inserted a catheter into the cancerous part of the right lobe and connected it to a perfusion device.

Using the "multi-organ maintenance system" developed independently by He's team, the doctors maintained the blood supply and vitality of the right lobe, effectively keeping the right lobe's blood in "extracorporeal circulation." The chemotherapy drugs were continuously infused for two hours to deactivate the tumor tissue.

Subsequently, in mid-October, the patient successfully underwent a right hepatectomy, and the tumor markers for liver cancer decreased by nearly 90 percent after chemotherapy. A pathological examination showed that there were no live tumor cells in the right lobe of the liver.

Currently, the liver function and the overall condition of the patient have significantly improved.

He noted that the patient did not experience common side effects of chemotherapy such as nausea, vomiting and hair loss, indicating that the technique may offer promising new methods in cancer chemotherapy.