Researchers at London Health Sciences Centre have launched a clinical trial that could change how kidney cancer is treated, using tiny radiation-filled beads that attack tumours from the inside out.
Kidney cancer happens when cells in one or both kidneys grow out of control and form a tumour. It is the eighth most common cancer in Canada.
The treatment delivers radiation through microscopic beads called TheraSphere™ Glass Microspheres, produced by Boston Scientific. The beads are made of glass and contain a radioactive substance called yttrium-90 (Y-90).
Already proven effective as a standard of care for treating liver cancer, the approach is now being tested in the kidney.
Dr. Derek Cool Credit: LHSC
”In those glass spheres is a radioactive atom called yttrium-90. Those spheres lodge right in the blood vessels in the tumor, and the radiation slowly decays from that Y-90 and delivers its effect within a short distance,” explained Dr. Derek Cool, associate scientist at the Lawson Health Research Institute and interventional radiologist at LHSC. ”So we can really get a direct treatment on the tumor while sparing most of the tissues outside of the kidney that we don’t want to harm.”
Cool said the trial is designed to offer new hope for patients who are not good candidates for surgery, often because of age or other health conditions.
The goal of the trial is to show that it works in the kidney.
“We’ve used it very extensively in the liver, and it’s become really a standard therapy for treating liver cancer. We think it can do the same for the kidney” Cool said.
If successful, Cool said the team hopes to expand the research into a larger, multi-centre study to confirm its effectiveness and push toward making it part of standard cancer care.
The study is funded by Boston Scientific.
