Makati Med performs vital cancer treatment
Providing the Philippines with the best service in medicine and healthcare, Makati Medical Center offers another medical first to the Filipino community — Selective Internal Radiation Therapy (SIRT) with SIR-Spheres.
SIRT is a liver cancer treatment procedure that delivers radiation directly to the tumor through a catheter inserted in the groin.
SIR-Spheres are resin-based micro beads with Y90 (yttrium-90), a radioisotope that emits pure beta radiation.
“This marks an important milestone in cancer treatment at the Makati Med,” says Dr. Ramon Santos-Ocampo, chief of Makati Med’s Interventional Radiology Section.
“We are introducing treatment that has established benefits of at least 10 years and will help many patients prolong survival with good quality of life,” he added.
Santos-Ocampo overees the procedures while Dr. Laurenz Bester of
The procedure is a collaborative effort among multiple disciplines of medicine, namely, oncology, interventional radiology, nuclear medicine and gastroenterology.
SIR-Spheres are recommended especially in metastatic liver tumors and in cases where surgical removal of tumors is not possible.
Prior to administration of the SIR-Spheres, the patient undergoes an angiogram of the liver, coiling of blood vessels, CT angiogram, and nuclear breakthrough scan to detect shunting to lungs and the volume of liver and tumor.
SIRT has proven to increase the survival of a patient by almost one year and four months compared to just undergoing chemotherapy.
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