Treatment of liver cancer

A team led by Professor Guy Maddern, Adelaide University's Department of Surgery, has presented its preliminary results of trials to the Annual Scientific Meeting of the Royal Australasian College of Surgeons.

The team developed a technique of inserting electrodes into the tumours and surrounding liver tissue, and then passing small electric currents through them. This process, termed electrolysis, destroys tumour and liver tissue in much the same way as electrolysis destroys the follicles of unwanted hair. It affects much less normal liver tissue than surgery of a more conventional kind, in which tumours are cut from the liver.

The ten patients treated so far in the ongoing trial at the Queen Elizabeth Hospital had all been evaluated as unsuitable for conventional surgical treatment due to the extent of their tumours. Nine were patients whose colonic cancers had spread to the liver, while one was treated for cancer of the liver itself.

The average follow-up time for the patients was nine months; the shortest time being six months and the longest 43 months. Eight of the ten patients showed no evidence of residual tumour at the treatment site. Five of these eight patients had developed new areas of tumour spread, but three showed no evidence of tumour recurrence.

Dr Benjamin Teague, research registrar in the department of surgery cautions that, despite the promising trials, it is not yet possible to say whether the procedure is of long-term benefit. "We can only determine that by evaluating the future progress of the patients who undergo this treatment. However, we do hope that by aiming to destroy the tumours in this way we may offer the possibility of a long-term cure to some patients."