By: Diana Jordan / Staff Writer
Patients suffering from terminal liver cancer may be granted a second lease on life due to the efforts and research of Dr. Seza Gulec, a Herbert Wertheim College of Medicine professor of surgery, radiology and nuclear medicine.

The treatment, Selective Internal Radiation Therapy, employs millions of microscopic radioactive beads known as SIR-Spheres, which locate primary and metastic liver cancer.

Although the treatment, which is delivered via catheter, transmits high dosages of radiation, the therapy spares a vast amount of healthy tissue in its recipients.

“We are essentially using the tumors’ blood supply to kill them, by infusing them with beta radiation,” Gulec said in a written statement.

According to him, this treatment surpasses all others since a higher dosage of radiation can be administered effectively thus reducing the size of the tumor.

“From my experience of treating more than 200 patients, all have responded positively to this treatment with some patients leading longer lives,” he said in a written statement.

His research and treatments have been supported by clinical trials, which have confirmed that patients treated with SIR-Spheres responded better to treatment.

One such trial conducted on patients with colorectal cancer liver metastases was reported in the Journal of Nuclear Medicine and claimed SIRT when combined with chemotherapy, proved to be more effective than chemotherapy treatment alone.

“Of the nearly 150,000 Americans diagnosed with colorectal cancer every year, at least 60 percent will see their cancer spread to the liver,” said Dr. John Rock, founding dean and senior vice president for medical affairs for the College of Medicine. “That makes Dr. Gulec’s advancements in the field of radiomicrosphere therapy an incredibly important step forward in cancer research.”

The therapy has not been limited to the treatment of liver cancer patients, however, and has come to include the treatment of pancreatic cancer patients as well.

More than 1,800 treatments have been performed at over 50 oncology centers based in the U.S. due to the SIR-Spheres pre-market approval by the FDA in March 2002.

The incorporation of SIRT along with chemotherapy treatments began under Gulec and his team of University researchers in Jackson North Medical Center in the fall of 2008 and were the first to be performed in the U.S.

President Modesto A. Maidique voiced his confidence in the College of Medicine saying in a written statement, “As one of the few medical institutions actively researching and applying this cutting-edge cancer treatment in the United States, FIU’s College of Medicine is on its way to becoming one of the country’s leading research centers.”