Over 1,500 cases of radiation embolization at Seoul National University Hospital...the most in Asia
Mar 26, 2025
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Starting with the first radiation embolization in 2011, the liver cancer center at Seoul National University Hospital gradually expanded the procedure and conducted 303 cases in 2024 alone. Subsequently, a total of 1,500 procedures were achieved on the 25th. This is the result of summing the number of procedures for the two radiation therapy devices (Theraosphere, SIR-Spheres), including 1304 cases of hepatocellular carcinoma, 64 cases of intrahepatic biliary tract cancer, and 132 cases of liver metastasis cancer.
The standard treatment for liver cancer is liver resection, but if the tumor is large or difficult to operate due to an underlying disease, radiation embolization or chemical embolization is performed. Radiation embolization is a treatment that injects radioactive isotope-loaded microspheres into tumor blood vessels through the hepatic artery and then necrotizes the tumor using radiation emitted from these microspheres. It is attracting attention as a safe and effective treatment because it can be performed only with local anesthesia and has less fever and abdominal pain than chemical embolization using anticancer drugs. Furthermore, the target of radiation embolization is expanding to intrahepatic biliary tract cancer and liver metastatic cancer that do not respond to chemotherapy.
Based on its excellent expertise, the Seoul National University Hospital Liver Cancer Center is leading the global distribution of techniques by providing radiation embolization training for radiologists in Asia for 2 nights and 3 days in 2024. In addition, the long-term survival rate of radiation embolization in large liver cancer is similar to that of surgery, and it is expanding the horizon of radiation embolization with academic research covering liver cancer of various stages, such as proving the effectiveness of simplified radiation embolization on small liver cancer.
Professor Kim Hyo-cheol (Department of Radiology) said "Radiation embolization is mainly used for early, mid-term, and advanced liver cancer, and can be widely used for intrahepatic biliary tract cancer and liver metastasis cancer" We will try to expand the scope of this procedure and provide optimized treatment for individual liver cancer patients"
Director of the Center Kim Yoon-joon (Gastroenterology) "The liver cancer center at Seoul National University Hospital is safely and effectively performing high-dose radiation embolization based on more than 1,500 procedures and expertise."We will continue to lead the spread of safe and effective radiation embolization at home and abroad to provide more treatment benefits to patients with liver cancer who have difficulty operating."," he said.
This article was translated by Naver AI translator.
