Rare liver cancer treatment makes north Queensland debut
Richard Dinnen - Queensland Editor |
A Townsville grandfather has become the first Queenslander to get a rarely performed treatment for inoperable liver cancer outside of Brisbane.
Russell Norton had Selective Internal Radiation Therapy (SIRT) at Townsville University Hospital, putting tiny radioactive beads into his liver via a catheter to destroy the cancerous cells.
Since he was diagnosed in 2019, Russell had surgery, radiation, and chemotherapy, which left him unable to make the multiple trips to Brisbane required for the life extending SIRT treatment.
Russell said his medical oncologist, Zulfiquer Otty, advocated for him to be the first person to receive SIRT at Townsville University Hospital, and the first outside Brisbane.
“Doctor Otty is amazing, he always tries to find a new approach to fighting my cancer, which gives me that ray of hope that I’ll get more time with my family.
“Making that trip (to Brisbane) not once, but four or five times in the leadup to the procedure, probably would have been too much for me after everything I’d been through.
“Anything that gives you a bit of extra time, when you’ve got something like I’ve got, gives you a lift.
“Life is pretty special and when you’re grasping for anything that can help you, something like this is fantastice.
“I’m quite privileged to be given the opportunity to have it.”
The grandfather of 14 was first diagnosed with bowel cancer in 2019. He had surgery at Townsville University Hospital, followed by several bouts of chemotherapy.
SIRT was considered when it became clear the chemo was no longer effective, but it was only available in Brisbane.
Townsville University Hospital clinical director of radiology, Shiromi Prematunga, said bringing the SIRT service to Townsville was a monumental team effort that had been years in the making.
“There were so many enthusiastic doctors, technologists and support staff who came together to make this possible.
“We’re also grateful to the interventional radiology team from the Royal Brisbane and Women’s Hospital who supported and mentored our local teams.”
Townsville Hospital’s interventional radiologist, Deepak Jain, led the team that performed the ground-breaking procedure.
“It’s fantastic we can now offer this service here for patients who are at a stage where they have no options left.
“Townsville Hospital caters to such a large population of north Queensland, so it was really necessary that we are able to provide all the treatments which are available for these kinds of cancers.
“This is a very specialised and complex procedure which involves a lot of different teams and specialists coming together to give the OK for a patient.
“If it’s available here, potentially there are more indications where we can expand and get a few more patients to benefit from this procedure.”
Russell said he’s very grateful for the opportunity to be the first to get the SIRT treatment in Townsville.
‘‘I was overwhelmed with gratitude when I discovered I was going to be the first person in the region to undergo the procedure.
“So many amazing people did a lot of work to make this happen, and I think it will give some hope to others in this part of the world who are in the same boat as myself.’’
