Chemoembolization X-Ray Medical Group provides Chemoembolization at Sharp Grossmont Hospital in La Mesa CA. This unique and effective technique is performed by the X-Ray Medical Group radiologists; placing you in the best of care. What is Chemoembolization?

Chemoembolization is a way of delivering cancer treatment directly to a tumor. The liver is the most common part of the body for chemoembolization to be used, although it can be done in other areas. Under X-Ray guidance, a small catheter is inserted into an artery in the groin. The catheter's tip is threaded into the artery in the liver that supplies blood flow to the tumor. Chemotherapy is injected through the catheter directly into the tumor and is mixed with particles that embolize or block the flow of blood to the diseased tissue. Because the majority of the chemotherapeutic agent is trapped inside the tumor, patients generally experience less systemic side effects than are associated with conventional chemotherapy (ie. no hair loss).

Chemoembolization is most beneficial to patients whose disease is limited to the liver, whether the tumor began in the liver or spread to it (metastasized) from another organ. Some success has been demonstrated with patients whose cancer has spread to other areas. Cancers that may be treated by chemoembolization include:

• Hepatoma (primary liver cancer)
• Metastasis (spread) to the liver from:
  • colon cancer
  • carcinoid
  • islet cell tumors of the pancreas
  • ocular melanoma
  • sarcomas
  • a primary tumor in another part of the body

Depending on the number and type of tumors, chemoembolization may be used as the sole treatment or may be combined with other treatment options such as surgery or radiation.

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