New treatment format for terminal-stage liver cancer patients

The Shanghai Cancer Center has announced the success of an immunity-and-targeted therapy for terminal-stage liver cancer patients, offering a chance of surgery for sufferers who may have missed the opportunity.

Doctors said they received a patient whose eyes had turned yellow and who was suffering upper-belly pain. He went to see Dr Wang Lu of the center's liver surgery department on May 5.

Wang confirmed that the patient was suffering from liver cancer and the tumor was nearly 10 centimeters long. The patient could be cured if the cancer was removed entirely.

Without surgery, chances of a five-year survival were only 30 percent, but it was a huge risk due to the size of the tumor.

So, doctors decided to shrink the tumor through a combination of immunotherapy and targeted treatment.

The patient's cancer shrank nearly 2 centimeters after some days and all other indicators fell, meeting the criteria for surgery, which is scheduled for next month.

Experts said the hospital has introduced the treatment to counterparts at home and abroad to promote the treatment effects for liver cancer patients in middle or terminal stages.

Ti Gong