University Hospitals Plymouth NHS Trust treats first Devon cancer patient using SIRT
Teams at University Hospitals Plymouth NHS Trust (UHP) have treated their first patient using Selective Internal Radiation Therapy (SIRT) this month, marking an important milestone in brining cutting edge treatment closer to our patients. The treatment, the first of its kind to take place in Devon, saw colleagues from Interventional Radiology and Nuclear Medicine working together to provide the service.
Dr Asha Omar, Consultant Radionuclide Radiologist, said: “It’s a really exciting time for us. It’s a fantastic opportunity to be able to provide this treatment at UHP as it’s not something that is available at every hospital. The nearest Trust to provide this treatment to us is in Bristol, so it’s great for our local patients”. 
SIRT is a first line treatment that delivers a high dose of local radiation to the tumour to kill all the cancer cells. The treatment works by using microspheres, in this case TheraSphere Glass Microspheres, that are coated in a radioactive tracer. The treatment emits beta radiation that can kill hepatocellular carcinomas, which are the most common types of liver cancer.
Dr Nelo Gafoor and Dr Paul Jenkins, the Consultant Interventional Radiologists who delivered the treatment continue: “The aim of this treatment was to effectively cure our patient’s cancer, and we are quite fortunate in this case that, the tumour was small. The treatment has been delivered successfully, and the team are all thrilled. Our patient is very happy”.
The main benefit of this for patients is that unlike chemotherapy, the cells are killed with one round of treatment, so the procedure is much less invasive.
“We are pleased to have been able to get this off the ground. It has required a huge amount of work from everyone involved. We are especially thankfully to our Nuclear Medicine Consultant Physicist colleague, Emma O’Shaughnessy, who has done much of the work to make this happen”.
Regarding the future of the treatment, Asha is hopeful that the teams at UHP will be able to continue accepting more patients: “There will be improvements made to the nuclear medicine department in the future, that will allow us the infrastructure to better image these patients, meaning this will eventually be a service that we can offer on a larger scale.”
