New treatment shrinks liver tumors through directed radiation

Dr. Thomas Aquisto provides hope to cancer patients with liver tumors who have run out of options.

"Most [of my patients] have known they've had the disease for a period of time, and often when they get to me, things aren't working very well," he says.

Of the 150,000 Americans diagnosed with colorectal cancer each year, more than 60 percent develop liver tumors, and the majority of patients die due to complications from their liver metastasis, Aquisto says.

But that's where he, an interventional radiologist with Ingalls Health System, and a new procedure, known as selective internal radiation therapy, come in. Aquisto provides a nonsurgical outpatient therapy that utilizes radioactive Yttrium-90 microspheres to fight liver tumors by focusing the radiation directly on the tumor.

Aquisto uses a patient's blood supply to send small spheres into the tiny vessels that feed the cancerous tumor. The radiation-filled spheres become stuck around the tumor and fill it with radiation, shrinking the tumors.

Shrunken tumors was the result for Avery Richardson, a South Side Chicago resident who learned in 2009 that his colorectal cancer had spread to his liver. He was told he had only months to live, but had a glimmer of hope when his cancer specialist told him about the new liver tumor treatment Aquisto was doing.

To be a candidate for the treatment, the patient must be examined by an Ingalls interventional radiologist and meet certain criteria such as having adequate liver function and a life expectancy of greater than three months. Luckily for Richardson, he was a fit. He received two treatments in 2010, shrinking his tumors.

He married his wife, Regina Hendon, in April, and Aquisto and his staff were there to celebrate the union. "I believe we were led to Dr. Aquisto for a reason," Richardson said in a statement from Ingalls. "I'm a man of faith, and when Regina and I met with Dr. Aquisto, he told us he would do the best he can and leave the rest up to God. He gave us confidence. I'm more than hopeful about the future."

Aquisto says it wasn't normal for him to be invited to a patient's wedding, but he was able to go, so he did. "You do this because you care about patients," he says. "You try to give them the best shot they have at a normal, fruitful life."