Doctors insert radioactive isotope to destroy tumor

A minimally invasive medical treatment that used radioactive iodine to destroy a tumor inside a patient's body was successfully carried out recently at a hospital in Chongqing.

The operation reduced the patient's side effects from surgery and boosted postoperative recovery, the hospital said.

According to Ma Jungang, the medical team leader of the Oncology Radiation Therapy Center at the Army Medical Center where the treatment was conducted, implanting the radioactive particle iodine-125 could spontaneously emit low-energy radiation and effectively destroy the tumor, leaving the normal tissues undamaged or only slightly damaged.

Ma said the patient, who was nearly 60 years old, was hospitalized by the center for a recurrence of late-stage cervical cancer with a metastasis in the liver after having undergone cancer surgery.

Ma's medical team implanted the iodine-125 isotope into the patient with the assistance of a 3D-printed template and guidance from real-time CT imaging.

Compared to traditional tumor surgery, which is highly traumatic and has poor recovery for patients, the new approach is much safer, has high precision and can minimize damage to adjacent normal tissues.

Moreover, the treatment, which is fast and shows immediate results, requires a short hospital stay and is included in social insurance.

Ma said the biggest challenge was that the tumor was deep in the patient's body where there was a rich distribution of blood vessels, making it prone to bleeding. So the surgery needed to be carried out extremely delicately.

"It will not pose long-term radiation safety hazards on the patient, her family or the public," said Ma, noting the patient needed to take personal radiation protection measures for a period of time, including wearing lead clothing.

It takes approximately 200 days for the radiation to completely decay.

According to the center, implanting radioactive isotopes to treat cancer has been carried out in China for nearly 15 years.

It works for patients with primary tumors who cannot tolerate surgery, in mid-to-late stage metastatic tumor lesions or postoperative isolated metastatic lesions that have lost surgical value, and cases with poor or failed conventional external radiotherapy or internal medicine treatment. The operation usually requires two doctors working for only one to three hours.

"The condition of the patient is currently stable. Her liver disease symptoms have basically disappeared," Ma said.